Black Lagoon: Brothers
by TakatoRikku
Summary: It's a Black Lagoon fanfiction, one of 3 on this site apparently. Nuff said. FF rating of M, though some chapters will have higher content rating, so be mindful. You don't need to see BL to enjoy this story! Rated MR for Retarded. Just kidding, check CH1
1. Respect is Earned, not Given

Disclaimer: I love Black Lagoon. You can't stop me from writing fan fiction about it, cuz I don't own it! Bahaha!

My muse is kicking my ass all over the house. I need a creative outlet for it! For those of you who have seen BL, this will take place during seasons 1 and 2, significantly changing many of the episodes' outcomes. Oh, and it's rated M on FF, but technically it'll be very incredibly much so NC-17 at the very least in the story, and that rating's for explicit violence, gore, etc. I'm not sure if I want to risk adding R-rated scenes for fear of FF wrath, but there will be lemons all round in this story. Plus, I have a good idea for some loli lemons, (that's for you Heretic) and it would work out smoothly and not so grossly either. Remember, lolicon means "child-like", not child. It's perfectly ok if a teenager looks like a kid.

"blah" - normal speech

""blah"" Japanese

* * *

Black Lagoon:

Brothers

_Respect is Earned, not Given_

Two figures stood upon their sea vessel as they looked at the city before them. They were on a small 108 foot yacht that was a midnight black color with a pearl white cabin section. It was a world-famous Sunseeker Predator 108 performance motoryacht and one of the top version models. It had twin engines that put out 2000HP and the ship's maximum speed was over 42 knots after some nitrous modifications. It was one of the most elegant and luxurious yachts in the world, and housed what would look like a multi-million dollar home inside. It cost well over $15 million US dollars.

The two figures standing on the front deck were of Japanese descent, and one was tall while the other was slightly shorter. The taller man was 5' 10" and had a handsome youthful heart shaped face, with handsome features. His deep amethyst eyes scanned the city and docks ahead of their yacht. He brushed some of his shoulder length raven hair from his face and let his hand rest on his back. He was wearing an elegant tuxedo that was a clean white all round. However, the dress shirt, vest and jacket had no sleeves, and his sleek, muscular arms were bared to the world, showing off a tattoo of a simple black and white angel with a katana. The angel's single wing was wrapped around her body and the sword, which she clutched to her breasts in a loving embrace. From the high collar of his suit, a black tattoo of a word in Japanese kanji was just seen, and if he took his top off one would see a line of kanji going down his spine, that read _Respect is Earned, not Given_. Strapped to the man's waist was a double pistol holster that held two gleaming pistols side by side, tips pointing downwards.

These pistols were extremely unique and one of a kind in the real world. They were heavily modified Springfield tuned Colt 1911 .45 auto pistols. They had been enhanced with an extended slid and barrel, which made it a 6" gun. Further added was a compensator barrel weight which added an extra 3" to the guns. The handgrips were custom laid carbon fiber, with a pendent inlaid on each side of a woman. One gun was pure black. The other was a satin silver, almost white. Each had an extended clip that jutted out 3 inches from the handgrip that held 30 rounds of lethal .45ACP bullets. However, these bullets were also custom handloaded rounds, which had a much more powerful mixture of gunpowders inside, which increased the power and velocity of the bullets, almost to elephant-hunting power.

They were named Ebony and Ivory. And they truly were one of a kind in the _real_ world, however they already existed in a video game, one that the man who owned the guns liked very much, Devil May Cry. He was such a stickler for that series.

While the taller man had his lean, athletic look, his companion was a shorter, stocky type, slightly larger in muscle and typically looked like one who would win a fist fight. This man was 5' 7" and had a slight bodybuilder's frame, though not to the extreme. He was dressed in a simpler dress code, consisting of black dress pants, and a deep blue dress shirt with a cotton vest and white tie. He had very short shaved hair, and a 2 inch fringe that he spiked up and backwards, the tips tinted a bright red. He wore a pair of expensive looking sunglasses as he too, watched the land before them.

He had a shoulder holster on, and on his left side hung an Infinity SV 4.3" .45 auto pistol that was dual-toned in satin silver white and black. The pistol had a custom-made laser on its accessory rail, one that was milled out of aluminum to mold into the shape of the gun nicely. This pistol had a regular clip inserted, but with an extended buttplate that stuck out 1cm from the bottom of the handgrip. These special clips could hold another 3 rounds in the clip, making a total of 15 bullets of the same handloaded ones his friend used. If it wasn't for his companion and his unique pistols, this young man could have passed off as a government agent.

""_Na, Takato,"_" the shorter man asked, ""This the place?""

The taller man, now known as his brother, grinned. ""_Hai_, _ani-san_,"" he answered. ""I heard it's quite the place for people such as us.""

The older but shorter brother cocked his head to the side. "Ahh, we need to restock anyways," he said in perfect English. "Food's gettin' stale and we need fuel."

The younger brother, Takato chuckled. "Do you think we could find a gas station that has 1000 liters of fuel, Saito?" he asked.

Saito shrugged. "We can make several stops at several stations," he said. "How are we on money?"

Takato scratched his head. "Decent, probably for a few weeks," he said. "Maybe 20 or 25 thousand American left."

Saito sighed loudly and sprawled back onto the beechwood decks. "Ahh, damn British Navy," he cursed. "Bullets cost too much."

"RPGs too," Takato added. He headed for the cabin. "I'm pulling us into port. Get yourself ready."

Saito cracked an eye open at the beautiful blue skies. "Ahh, more bullets," he moaned. He got up slowly.

Roanapur would have no idea what hit it.

-----

"Even underground Tokyo wasn't as shitty as this place," Takato commented as he and his older brother walked the streets of Roanapur, his arms behind his head as several gruff-looking men glared at him. "This place is Grade-A, choice cut brother."

"I suppose," Saito answered, keeping an eye out. "So I guess we play the asking game?"

Takato nodded. Grabbing a man who was passing by, he asked, "Hey uncle! Where's the best place to get a drink and news?"

The man gave Takato a dirty look. "Go to the Yellow Flag you cartoon porn lover!" he spat, throwing Takato's arm off and storming away from him.

"Hey uncle, I'm not into that shit!" Takato called over his shoulder. "Should I shoot him?"

Saito shook his head. "Don't start shit," he wisely said. His younger brother by 2 years (Saito was 22, Taka was newly 20) obeyed him respectfully. "Now we need to finid this bar."

"_Ooi_," a female voice called from in front of them. A very attractive Chinese woman with dyed amber hair, cut off Daisy Duke style jean shorts and a tight black tank grinned at them with a cigarette hanging from her lips. She had dual pistol holsters strapped on her and what looked like two Beretta-made pistols holstered. "You guys looking for the Yellow Flag? Well you're in luck, me and Rock were headin' over there now!"

She pointed at a Japanese man wearing a white dress shirt and green tie, who bowed to them in greeting and smiled. "Hi," he said.

Takato cocked his head at the man. "Oi, _ani-san_," he said. ""He looks like a white collar business man."

The man, Rock perked up. ""Oh, you're Japanese?"" he asked. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Rokuro Okajima, from Tokyo."

"Saito and Takato Sakamoto," Saito greeted with a bow. "Greetings, brother."

"Well, you heading to the Yellow Flag or what?" the Chinese beauty asked impatiently, stamping her foot. Her breasts and her guns jiggled from the movement.

Rock laughed. "Forgive Revy, she's not the patient type when she wants to get drunk," he said. The two brothers laughed and the group started walking the streets.

"So you two are outsiders eh?" Revy drawled. "Never seen you around here before."

"We've just arrived via yacht," Saito explained. "We heard about this place from our Yakuza friends from Washimine about Roanapur and wanted to check it out ourselves."

"Well I hope you can take care of yourselves, or you'll be sporting extra ass holes by the end of the night," Revy said dubiously, glancing over to Saito as she walked along. "Roanapur's a city of lowlifes."

"Sounds fun," Takato said with a grin. Revy caught a glimpse of his pistols.

"Nice guns," she commented, stepping behind Takato and checking them out. "You know how to use these kid?"

"Like breathing air," was his reply.

They made it to the bar sometime later, and it was starting to get dark. The brothers were introduced to Bao, the Vietnamese bartender who was ex-South Army. The bar was nicely filled for the night, and everyone enjoyed some drinks.

"Ah, I've been waiting all day for this shit!" Revy said joyously as she chugged down a Heineken can. Rock was in a happy mood (no doubt thanks to the fact that Revy was totally focused on the new guys) as he took a swig of his own Heineken.

The brothers were both drinking some hard Crown Royale, using two beer glasses and an entire bottle they bought from Bao.

"Same," Takato said after a shot glass' worth of swig he took from his glass. He didn't look the slightest fazed. "Been at the sea for so long, forgot how the finer shit tastes almost."

"Hey, pretty boy!"

Takato turned around in his stool and raised an eyebrow at a huge hulking man with a blond buzzcut. "Eh? What?" he asked irritably.

"You're in mah stool!" the 7 foot musclehead growled, a Desert Eagle in his left hand. "Get out before I turn you into red powder!"

Taka was unplussed. "Hey, asshat," he muttered, taking another drink. "Fuck off and find a new seat. I'm busy."

"You little shit!" the man roared, drawing the attention of everyone in the bar. He raised his Deagle and fired at Taka.

In a flash, Taka drew Ebony, aimed, and fired at the exact moment the man fired. A bright shower of sparks appeared in the air between the two and all was silent again.

"Holy fuck!" Revy gasped, dropping her beer. "He fucking shot the bullet out of the air!"

Saito took another swig of his Crown before refilling his glass. "Oh no, you've pissed him off now," he announced to another drink. He raised his glass. "To your death, Arnold."

"Fancy trick," the Shwarzenegger impersonator said with a cocky but nervous smile. "Let's see you do that again!"

He emptied the remaining six bullets in his clip at Taka, who calmly drew Ivory and shot three of them instantly, while using Ebony to deflect the other three with ease. Twirling the guns in his finger a-la-Dante, he brought them over his shoulders and stopped the twirl, before straightening his arms and aiming both pistols at the huge man.

"Not bad huh?" Takato asked, enjoying the sweat that rolled down the man's face. "Took me forever to learn how to do that. Now, why should I give you respect when you've shown me none in return?"

He began to walk up to the man, and after a few steps stopped right in front of him. "Hey, listen kid..." the man stammered. "It was just an honest mistake, serious!"

"I know," Taka said reassuringly. Then, in a swirl of his 3/4 suit jacket's tail, he spun around and executed an upper-cut kick, which sent the man flying an impressive 15 feet into the air. FInishing his spin, Takato raised his pistols and fired repeatedly, keeping the man in the air with the powerful impacts of his bullets and slowly sending him over to the front door. A bewildered patron opened the front doors and Taka smirked, just as his guns emptied. The smoking body fell quickly, and he roundhouse kicked it out onto the street. Taka twirled his guns a few times, never stopped as his arms reached round to his back and holstered them in mid spin.

He shut the doors softly and walked briskly back to his stool, picking up his glass. Taking a calming sigh, he drank down the rest of his glass.

"HOLY SHIT, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" Revy exploded, pushing Rock out of the way as she sat next to Taka. "That was fucking amazing! What kind of guns are those?!"

"I'll show you mind if you show me yours," was his response as he refilled his glass to the top. Revy quickly unholstered her Berettas and placed them on the bartop, and Taka put Ebony and Ivory down as well.

"Very nice," Taka said, picking up a Cutlass and examining it. "Six inch extended barrel and slide, with another inch extra for the barrel, hard chromed and ivory grips with custom engravings."

"Calico Jack, the pirate," Revy said proudly. "They're my Sword Cutlasses."

She held Ivory in her hands reverantly. "Ebony and Ivory," she read. "These guns are incredible! I bet Boss Chang would like to see em. They look really familiar though..."

"Every play video games?" Takato asked. "They're modelled from the guns from that Devil May Cry game."

"Heh, nerd," Revy said, giving Taka his guns back as she holstered her own. "Cool guns little bro."

Rock raised an eyebrow. It appeared that Revy _really_ respected Takato's skills, otherwise she wouldn't have called him anything respectful.

Taka smirked. "Thanks _ne-chan_," he answered. Suddenly, the front doors slammed open.

"Oy, Revy!"

-----

Revy frowned at the woman in the doorway, but Rock figured it out. "Eda?!" he spluttered. "From the Church of Violence?"

Saito raised an eyebrow. "Nuns wear clothes like that?" he asked, gesturing with his glass towards Eda's pink tube top showing off impressive DD or at least D cup breasts and miniskirt.

"Hey, have you heard the news?" Eda purred, taking a seat beside Saito and looking over at Revy. "About those Hotel Moscow murders?"

"Yeah, Bao, told us," Revy said. "What's up bitch?"

"Turns out there's a nice bounty for the killers," Eda answered. "Slut," she added. "50,000 and that's American, not our money!"

"$50,000 is too much to ignore," Revy said greedily, rubbing her hands together.

"Anyone care to explain what's going on?" Saito asked. Eda smiled seductively at him.

"A couple of one of the city's big mafia group's men have been killed, and they've put out a hit for the killers," she explained. "50 grand US, and it's open to anyone."

Saito grinned. He looked over to Takato. "Hear that, little brother?" he asked. "50 thousand."

"Hey, I've never seen you two before," Eda said, peering at the two from behind her pink sunglasses.

"We're new to town," Takato explained. "I'm Takato, this is my older brother Saito."

"Pleasure," Eda purred, winking at Saito. He smirked back from behind his glass. "You guys armed?"

Saito showed her his Infinity and Taka twisted around to show off E&I.

"I suppose I can let you two in on this," Eda said. "The mafia are letting all the mercs and freelance killers in to get on this job."

"Got any info?" Revy asked.

Eda nodded. "I got one lead," she said.

-----

""Well, we've only been here a day, and we've found some crazy shit,"" Takato commented as he lounged on the black leather couch in the second sub-deck level of their yacht. ""Hmm. Killer kids. Sounds messed up.""

""The Balalaika woman must like us,"" Saito commented. ""It's a good thing she didn't kill us on spot for walking into her office. Then again, she had to have respected our skills if we got past all of her men without a single shot.""

Takato grinned. The heavily burned woman had grudgingly respected the brothers' skills. They had earned a little respect from the powerful Russian leader. She had given them information on the killers, twin white children armed with a large machinegun and axe each. A brother and a sister, though they couldn't tell for sure. They were so identical. His grin turned into a frown.

""I'm not sure I can kill children,"" he said worriedly. ""Even psychotic mass murdering ones.""

Saito sighed. ""You have much honor, little brother,"" he said, pressing his hand to his forehead. ""Too much. But I agree with you. Perhaps we can capture the twins and bring them to Balalaika to do as she pleases. I am already going to hell, I don't want to go to the seventh depth for killing children.""

""Nor I, brother, nor I.""

""_Ja, iku, nii-san,_"" Takato said, sliding a fresh clip into both his pistols. "We'd best hurry if we don't want to be beaten to the chase by Miss Balalaika's army."

"No," Saito said, sending a spinning Infinity into the air and catching it with ease before holstering it expertly. "I'd like to get paid too. This damn yacht is getting expensive."

Takato laughed. "You used our late father's funds to buy it," he reasoned. "It was at least one good thing that came from that beast. Besides, I like having a moving home, it's quaint."

Saito shrugged in agreement. "Let's go little brother."

* * *

So, what do you guys think? R&R!


	2. Trying to Save

Warning! Lolicon Alert! Lolicon Alert!

Nah, just kidding. Chapter rated: M

* * *

_Trying to Save_

"Sir, there are two young men heading this way," Cho told Boss Chang as the Triad leader got out of his car.

"Hmm. Cho, I suggest you should duck," Chang told his trusted subordinate. His men looked at him strangely, but they ducked just in time to avoid getting hit by a falling body, which crashed onto the top of Chang's car. Chang rubbed his head.

"I suppose I can charge them for the damages," he said. Looking up, he saw the flashes of automatic fire lit the dark room. "Well, if Verrocchio survived."

-----

"Nice! You're not bad!" a young girl's voice drifted to Takato's ears as he and Saito stayed behind the wall of an alley.

"Thanks lil girl!" a man's voice called back.

"I'm sorry, but we can't deal with you right now," the sweet voice said apologetically. "Till next time!"

Footsteps pattered their way, and Taka gripped Ebony and Ivory tightly, then flung himself out in front of the child killers. Aiming a gun at each child, he took in their appearance. They looked older than he had expected, but still quite young. They were both very pale, white kids with Albino affliction since they had translucent white hair and ice blue eyes. The girl had long hair that reached to her feet and was wielding one long ass machinegun in her hands. It had a stuffed doll tied to the barrel. The boy had shorter hair that came to his chin and was carrying a wicked looking axe. They were both very attactive young kids. Too bad they were psychos.

"This is no place for children," Saito said, walking calmly up to Taka's side. "Even ones like you."

"Hey misters, you should get out of our way," the girl said, raising her machinegun. "We don't have time to fight you, but we will."

She fired a burst at Taka, who merely twirled Ivory in front of his body as he deflected the shots. Stopping the twirl, he aimed both guns at the girl's weapon and fired a shot from each, the first one from Ebony jarring her aim off, and the second smashing into the selector switch, jamming it to safe and breaking. The boy made to throw his axe at Taka, but Saito shot it in the blade, sending it flying straight up into the air. Five more shots made the axe fly a considerable distance away from its owner.

"You two are very good!" the boy giggled madly. "But we can't stay to play, see you around!"

He dropped something onto the ground and the two brothers shielded their eyes as a flashbomb exploded. When they looked up again, the children were gone, as was the axe that was several feet away.

""Damn it," Taka swore.

-----

"You two alright?" Saito asked as he and his brother happened upon a dishevelled Revy and Eda, who were wandering out of an alley. The brothers had heard many gunshots in the area and had rushed over, only to see Balalaika's men pull away and the twins dissapear from sight.

"Ah, we don't fucking care anymore," Revy sulked, sticking her hands in her butt pockets. "We didn't make a cent tonight."

"I'm heading back to the office," Eda sighed. "Mind giving me some company back, Saito?"

The brothers shared a look. ""Looks like we're done here,"" Saito sighed. ""There goes that 80 grand bounty... I guess I'll take the bimbo back.""

Taka nodded, "I'm going for a drink, he announced. "Later."

Revy went her own way and Saito led Eda by the arm as they headed for her car. Takato stood there on the street as he held Ebony and Ivory loosely in his hands.

"You can come out now, little girl," he called.

A giggle answered him as the pale faced girl stepped out from the shadows, still clutching her damaged machinegun. "So, you knew I was waiting for you?" she asked curiously.

"I could smell you," Taka answered. "You smell like I do, blood and gunpowder."

She walked up in front of Taka, peering at him curiously. She just came up to his neck, surprisingly. "You're different from me, you don't kill like I do."

"I don't enjoy it like you do."

He scrutinized the girl in front of him. "Which one are you?" he demanded.

She smiled. "I am sister," she said.

"Are you?" Taka asked warily. "You both look so alike, you could switch up anytime you want."

She smiled again, and looked at her feet. Reaching up, she removed the long wig from her head, revealing a cut like her brother. "I'm really sister," she said, unbuttoning her shirt so her small cleavage showed. "See?" She went to raise her dress. A bullet struck the ground in front of her, causing a spray of cement to fly up.

"Eugh, I believe you," Taka said with a disgusted look on his face. "There's nowhere to go girlie."

She pouted sadly. "I know I can't beat you," she said, frowned at her useless gun. "But could you do me a favor, mister?"

"Eh?" Taka hummed, intrigued. She reached into her bag and brought out thick wads of American bills.

"If I give you $100,000 will you keep me safe and take me somewhere?" she asked innocently.

Taka raised an eyebrow. "How do I know that you won't just try to kill me once I take you wherever?" he asked.

"I promise!" she beamed, putting her hand on her chest.

Taka eyed the girl seriously as he tightened his grip on his pistols. Shrugging, he holstered them. "Eh, it can't hurt me if I do," he said. "Money first?"

She handed him ten wads of hundred dollar bills, and he stuffed them into the pockets of his suit jacket. Giving the girl another odd look, he watched as she took his hand in hers and he guided her away.

-----

""You're shitting me,"" Saito said as he eyed his younger brother and the white haired girl beside him. ""You're fucking shitting me.""

"She offered a hundred G's," Taka said with a shrug of his shoulders. He tossed the wads onto the exquisite mahogany table in the TV room. "That's 20 more than what Miss Balalaika offered us, and this way we don't have the death of a child on our minds."

"Do you have a phone?" the girl asked with a smile. "I'd like to call someone."

Saito gave her a look. "By the love seat," he muttered.

She went to the phone and picked it up. Looking back to the brothers, she pouted. "Do you know the number of your friends, the red headed miss?" she asked.

Saito raised an eyebrow. "You want to call Dutch for a getaway," he said in surprise. "Well, if you pay him I suppose so."

He dialed the number for the girl and the three sat there as it rang.

"Hello," the white haired demoness said into the reciever. "... Ah, you know who I am? ... ... Yes, I know the Russians want me dead. ... I would like to leave this place, if that's okay with you. ... Yes that amount is fine. ... Okay, see you soon."

She placed the phone back onto the cradle and turned to the two Japanese brothers. "Thank you," she said sweetly. "Can you do me one last favor mister?"

Taka raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" he wondered.

"We are on a boat. They are on a boat. It would be easier to just meet in the sea than on land," she explained. "Could you do that for me?"

Saito waved his hands in the air. "Hey, you paid us already, so I don't mind," he said. He gave her an eye. "You're lucky we already refuelled."

He started to make his way to the bridge. "Make yourself comfortable little lady, and don't go above-deck," he called over his shoulder. "No funny business either."

"I promise."

"I'll keep her company," Takato said, flipping the TV on. "Hey girlie, you like video games?"

-----

"We sure have interesting clients, don't we Saito?" Dutch asked as the black man watched Takato and Rock help the young girl aboard the Black Lagoon. Dutch and Saito had struck up a great friendship over the past few hours they had known eachother. "A hundred grand American is a good deal however, no matter what Balalaika's wrath may bring."

He looked at the short Japanese man, who watched the sea from his yacht. "You have a beautiful ship," Dutch commented. "It's not just a yacht, eh Saito? It doesn't show up on radar."

Saito smiled mysteriously. "Ever wonder why it's black?" he retorted. The girl killer had been taken under deck and Taka came back out and shook Dutch's hand.

"Thanks Dutch," he said, looking back to the hatch where the girl dissapeared off to. "You make sure she gets to wherever she's heading, yeah?"

Dutch nodded. "Balalaika will be pissed, but nothing will happen to me," he said. "You two... however..."

Saito shook his head and ran his hand along the rail of the deck. "We can dissapear easily," he said, still smiling mysteriously.

Dutch nodded and saluted Saito, who bowed before him with his brother. "Till we meet again brothers, Sakamoto," he said in his deep voice. He retreated to his bridge and the brothers went to theirs. Taka manned the helm with a faraway look. Saito noticed.

""Oh no, I know that look,"" he said warily. ""Balalaika won't like you for it.""

Taka snorted. ""You and I both fear nothing from Miss Balalaika, and she knows and respects that,"" he answered. ""But she's no fool. She'll have known that one twin would try to get away.""

""And so, you want to follow the Lagoon," Saito sighed. "Fine, but you're paying for the refuel out of your own pocket once we get back to Roanapur."

Taka smiled evilly as he tracked the Lagoon's movement from the radar console. The yacht was equipped with military-spec sensors. "Back?" he echoed. "Wow, you really must not fear Miss Balalaika then. Alright, they're heading away at a cruising speed of 30 knots. I heard those PT boats did around 40-45 top."

Saito waved his hand dismissively. "The _Miyuki_ can do 55 easily, you know that," he said fondly. The yacht was named after their late, loving mother. "Stay out of visual range then, the stealth hullskin will prevent them from seeing us on radar. Cruise on, brother."

-----

"Is this the cargo?" a blonde haired man asked Dutch as Rock watched the little girl get off the Lagoon with her machinegun wrapped. Dutch nodded to "Bighorn" Elroy as he tied the Black Lagoon to the mooring.

"Yeah," he grunted as he looped the rope. "I know it was a rush, but did you get a passport ready?"

"I got one together, I'm used to it," the man replied as the girl looked around curiously.

The girl giggled as she jumped onto the dock and looked back to Rock. "Mister! Let's meet!" she cried happily. "Let's meet again sometime!"

Rock smiled as she held her hat with her hand in the gusty wind. "Just the two of us, with a picnic basket," she continued. "Then you can tell me about your friends with the yacht!"

Rock smiled sadly. "Yeah, that sounds wonderful," he answered. She had begun to change while on the Miyuki and Lagoon. "Really wonderful."

_Click_. Rock and the girl looked to see Elroy aim a gun at her face. Her eyes widened.

Then, Elroy flew to the left as blood sprayed from his own head, and a second later, the crack of a loud gunshot reached their ears. The white haired girl stood there in shock as Elroy lay on the ground, the left side of his head with a large hold in it, and the right side completely torn apart as blood and brain matter pooled onto the dock's wood.

"What the?" Dutch gasped as everyone turned left.

There, floating in the distance, they could make out the Miyuki's sleek shape, and a figure standing on top of the bridge, holding a rifle.

-----

"Nice shot," Saito commented as he guided the yacht slowly to the dock where the Lagoon was moored. Taka grunted a thanks as he packed the Arctic Warfare Super Magnum back into its case. He slid the case into one of the weapon compartments littered about the deck and stood back up, his jacket tail swaying in the soft breeze as they neared the dock. He grinned at their shocked looks and jumped down onto the dock, his white tails flapping behind him.

"What, surprised?" he asked with a smile. Something hit him in the chest and he looked down to see a mop of white hair under his head. "Eh?"

"You saved me mister," the girl sniffed, hugging him. "Why? I'm a monster."

Taka patted her on the head. "Hey, when I took your money I said I'd keep you safe, yeah?" he asked. "Just holding up my end of the bargain."

Dutch and his crew of sailors walked up. "You know she won't be happy with you," he warned. Taka shrugged, before removing the girl's arms from his waist and walking over to Elroy's body. Searching around, he found the man's cellphone. Flipping it open, he found the last number dialed and pressed Send.

"_Elroy, is it done?_" Balalaika's voice asked.

"Ah, Miss Balalaika, I'm terribly sorry but Mr. Elroy is dead," Takato spoke.

There was a pause. "_Do you have a fucking death wish Sakamoto?_" she snarled.

Takato sighed. "Miss Balalaika, I must confess," he said. "I'm a man of honor and morals, surprisingly. I just could not, in my good conscience, let you kill a child."

"_She and her brat brother killed my men,_" Balalaika retorted.

"Shit happens," Takato said. "Did you try to get revenge on every soldier who killed one of yours in Afghanistan? If you come at me, know that I won't hold back, not even for you ma'am."

Another long pause. "_Keep your pet on its leash,_" Balalaika snapped. "_It she so as much looks at me funny I'll kill her with my bare hands, understood Sakamoto?_"

"Yes Miss Balalaika," Takato answered.

She sighed. "_I've got a job for you once you get back,_" she announced. "_Consider yourself in debt because of this._"

"Fine by me. Goodbye Miss Balalaika."

He hung up and tossed the phone into the water and turned back to the others.

"Well?" Rock asked anxiously. Taka smiled.

"I owe her a favor, but Miss Balalaika will let her live for now," he answered with a nod towards the girl. Dutch shook his head in amazement.

"She must really like you," he groused.

"I respect her, and she respects me," Takato said. "That's all."

The girl stepped up to Takato and bowed. "You saved my life," she said quietly. "My brother is dead. You're all I have now and I'm in your debt. I'll stay with you, forever?"

Taka blinked. "Yeah, sure," he said. "We've got too much spare rooms in the yacht anyways."

-----

"It's so comfy!" the girl squealed as she bounced on her new bed. She had chosen the bedroom right next to Takato's on the first sub-deck level of the Miyuki. She bounced around for a bit more before settling down and looking at Takato.

"You and the man from the other boat were the only ones kind to me," she said. "Why?"

Taka scratched his head. "I dunno, really," he said. "It's... one of those things, I guess."

She looked at him for a little while longer. "I really do appreciate it," she said.

Taka smiled. "That's good," he said. "What's your name anways?"

She thought for a moment. "They called me Gretel," she said. "But I don't like that name. Brother would always used to call me sister."

"Why don't you choose a new name?" Taka asked. She beamed at him.

"Oh mister, pick one for me?" she begged with a happy smile.

"Huh?" Taka said. "Okay let's see then... Hmm... Rock said you had a wonderful singing voice right?"

"Yes!" she said.

"I'm afraid I don't know much other than Japanese names, and you don't want that, right?"

"No."

"I know! How about Cecilia?" Taka said triumphantly. "It's Latin for pure and musical. ... Well the musical part would count for you."

The girl smiled. "I like it," she said. "Thanks mister!"

"It's Takato," Taka corrected her. She bounded off the bed and hugged him, to his chagrin.

"Thank you Takato," she cooed.

-----

"I didn't take you for a cradle robber," Saito teased as Takato joined him at the bridge. The older brother was piloting the yacht.

"... Fuck you," was the elegant response.

"Hey man, it's not that bad, she _does_ have breasts, so she has to be pre-teen at least," Saito continued with a chuckle. "So I guess she's more like jailbait."

Taka gave an unmanly pout. "If _kasa_ didn't tell me to watch over your ass, I'd kill you," he whined.

"Same, brother. Where's our little lady anyways?"

"Sleeping, she told me to wake her up once we got back into Roanapur's port."

"That won't be for another few hours," Saito remarked, checking their position on the GPS. "Get some rest yourself."

"If you get tired, don't hesitate to switch with me."

"_Hai_."

-----

"Sakamoto," Balalaika greeted formally as Takato and Cecilia exited off the yacht. She sneered distastefully at the young girl, who looked at her shoes. "I'm calling that favor in a few weeks."

"Sure Miss Balalaika," Takato said as he bowed to her and Boris. "Hope it's not boring."

Balalaika cracked a small smile. "It rarely ever is," she said. She gazed at the Miyuki. "That's a beautiful boat you have there, must have cost quite a lot."

Takato smiled proudly. "She's our pride and joy," he said. "Would you like a tour of our home Miss Balalaika?"

She thought it over for a moment and nodded. "I've got a free evening," she agreed. "Lead the way."

Some hours later, they were seated in the bar room with Saito and Boris playing some poker at the table. Balalaika was smoking one of her usual cigars while she and Taka sipped from their wine glasses and chatted about nonsensical things. Cecilia was sleeping in her room upstairs.

"This is the most exquisite yacht I've ever seen," Balalaika commented as she put her cigar out in the crystal ashtray. "It's got everything on Hotel Moscow's rooms."

"You're very kind, Miss Balalaika," Takato said graciously as he gestured with the Merlot bottle if she wanted a refill. She nodded with a smile in thanks and he filled it again with the red liquid.

"You're a very good cook as well," she added, eating some more of the spaghetti that Takato had whipped up quickly. It was very well seasoned and flavored with lots of spices and herbs. The flavor simply assaulted her taste buds. "If the killing business doesn't work out, I would hire you as a chef in a heartbeat."

"Ooi, stop flattering me, you'll inflate my big head even more," Takato laughed. Balalaika shared a laugh with him.

"I don't usually compliment people, so you should feel honored," she said, but without malice. Takato bowed.

"Oh, I do," he said. "You're a great leader, Kapitan."

She nodded thanks. "That means a lot, coming from you," she said after another bite of pasta. "Tell me, I see what looks like writing on your neck...?"

Takato nodded. "Ah, yes," he said, unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off, revealing lean, chiselled muscle. He turned around to show Balalaika the Japanese kanji on his spine. "It reads, _Respect is earned, not given_," he explained.

"Very wise words," Balalaika agreed. She wiped her mouth daintily with her napkin and placed it on top of her empty plate, signalling that she was finished. "It was a most enjoyable evening brothers Sakamoto, but I'm afraid I must leave and get back to work."

Saito finished his hand with Boris (winning the pot too) and bowed to the man and his leader. "Let me show you out Balalaika, Boris," he said congenially with a bow.

"Thank you," Balalaika accepted, taking Saito's arm. Boris followed behind her dutifully. "Have yourself a good night, Takato."

"You too ma'am," Taka answered, cleaning up the plates and glasses.

Saito came back down some minutes later and packed up the poker set. "She's a nice woman when not on a homicidal rampage," he remarked.

Takato nodded with a grin. "I'll enjoy working for her," he said. "The money should be good too."

Saito nodded thoughtfully. After a moment's silence, he asked, "Think we should removing her listening bugs?"

-----

In the backseat of her black Mercedes, the Russian mafia leader smiled as her listening devices were shut off. She dialed a number on her cell phone.

"Don't worry about it," she said into the reciever, and in the distance, she saw her team of soldiers halt in front of the yacht. "It's okay. I think we can expect great things from those two."


	3. Life goes on

Warning: Slight loli!

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

_Life goes on_

"Here," Takato said, tossing Revy and Eda each a wad of $10,000USD.

"Nice!" Revy said, snatching hers up as Eda took the wad of cash in front of her. "But what for?"

"If it weren't for you two, we wouldn't have gotten paid," Takato explained. "Call it, information fees."

"Works for me," Eda said, slipping the wad into her cleavage. "If you ever need any guns or ammo, come visit the church pretty boy."

Takato nodded in thanks and filed that away in his memory. He turned to the college dropout, Benny. "Hey Benny," he called, pressing two 100s into the man's hands. "Think you could do me a favor?"

Benny pocketed the bills. "Sure Tak, what's up?" he asked.

"I want you to find any information on the Romanian twins," Takato announced. "I need to learn all I can about our new friend."

Eda leered at him as she leaned back in the couch, her giant breasts poking into the air from under her tank top. "Didn't take you for the kiddie type," she commented with a grin. "She's like, 10 years old."

Takato shook his head. "No, she's at least 12 or 13," he said. "And fuck you dumpsterslut. I'm not into that shit."

"It's still better than twincest," Revy grumbled. "That was just gross. So, she try to kill you yet?"

"Revy!" Rock scolded.

"No, she's actually acting like a normal kid," Taka said, scratching the back of his neck. "Whatever you said to her Rock, and my saving her really impacted her. She hasn't even touched that machinegun of hers yet."

"Hmph," Revy snorted. "I'd still keep an eye out for that brat."

"Hey Tak," Benny called from his laptop. "I've found some stuff on your little lady over here from government records."

Taka walked over to the blond man. "That was fast," he remarked.

Benny smirked with his tongue out as he typed away. "I'm an amazing hacker," he replied. "So, check it out. These kids were born in... **_1991_?!**" he shouted.

"WHAT?!" Revy yelled, bolting up from her seat. "There's no fucking way she's 16!"

"Are you sure about this Benny?" Takato asked in confusion. Benny checked out some more records.

"Positive," he said, peering at the screen. "There's only one record of twins their age here. The fact that it says they're both Albinos makes me certain of it. It just shows the date of birth being December 11th, 1991. No names, not even the parents or anything."

"That's all thanks to the dead dictator," Rock said quietly. "All orphans were born nameless because of the anti-abortion law and sent to orphanages that were pretty much prisons."

"And most of them ended up in snuff films and as pig food," Eda grumbled as she fumbled to lite up a cigarette. "Just like your girlie, but she turned out to be a psycho anyways."

A gunshot rang out and lit Eda's cigarette for her. She gave a gulping puff as she eyed down Taka's Ebony pistol as he held it facing back from him, his eyes still on the screen. Revy smirked at the blond nun.

"I could set her loose on you, Eda," Takato suggested.

"Ah, no thanks," Eda said hurriedly, waving her hands up.

"I don't understand, why was she so small though?" Rock asked. "She can't be taller than 5 feet or so."

"It was common for orphans there to be malnourished and underformed," Benny explained. "That would explain her shortness. All those snuff films sped up her development however. Heh. It's still disgusting."

He looked up at Takato. "Tak man, I thought she would end up as a corpse because of what she was," he said seriously. "She's got a second lease on life. Don't fuck it up, eh?"

Takato nodded. He gave Benny another 100. "Thanks for the information," he said, and bowed to everyone before exiting the office.

-----

Takato heaved a sigh as he left the office dock of Black Lagoon and walked along the shore to where the Miyuki was moored. Despite having their own naval home, docking at Roanapur meant that you had to pay rent to Hotel Moscow if you planned on staying here. Balalaika was a nice woman however, and since the Sakamoto brothers worked for her occassionally, she lowered their rent to a reasonable $5000USD a month, compared to a regular $8000 everyone else had to pay, even Dutch.

He reached his yacht, and hopped onto the deck, before taking the starboard hatch downstairs to the bedroom floor. He walked into Cecilia's room, where the girl was currently sitting on her bed, humming a melody. She brightened when she saw him enter.

"You're back!" she said excitedly, "I missed you!" She gave him a hug.

"Hey Cece," Taka greeted, extricating himself from her strong grip. "I found some things out about you today."

"Oh?" she asked as she sat down on her bed.

"Yes, I had Benny dig up anything he could find," Taka continuted. "It turns out your birthday is December 11th, and you're 16 years old."

"Really?" Cecilia asked. She fidgeted her nightgown, the sheer material showing her black bra and underwear faintly. "That explains these." She put a hand on each petite breast. Taka looked away until she removed them.

She stepped up to Taka and stood an arm's length away. "Thank you," she said with a cheerful smile. "Good deeds should be rewarded!"

And with that, she unclipped the straps to her nightgown, letting it fall around her ankles as she stood in front of Taka, underwear clad in her young, nubile body. Taka averted his eyes and threw a nearby bathrobe onto her.

"You don't have to that," he said uneasily as she put the robe on with a frown. "Not at all."

"Why not?" she asked dissapointedly. "I've never put a Japanese in before. You don't want to be rewarded?"

"You don't have to reward me at all," Taka cried, frustrated. "I don't do these things to be rewarded, I just - _do_ them! Because I want to!"

Cecilia put a finger to her lips. "Ah, I understand," she said. "Well, then how about this?"

She stepped up and lifted her lips to his, giving him a chaste kiss. Taka sighed, but allowed it. After a short moment she pulled away with her cheery smile back on.

"You like that better, yes?" she chirped, before flouncing over to her bed and snuggling in. Taka shook his head in dismay as he walked over and tucked the girl in. She rustled underneath and Taka resignedly accepted the robe she had shucked off under the covers.

"Good night Taka," she breathed sweetly as she dropped off to the dreamland.

"Good night Cece," Taka said softly as he watched her a little longer. "Dream sweetly, not of blood..."

Taka stepped out of Cecilia's room and shut the door quietly. Leaning against the wall, he blew the hair out of his eyes. "I'm going to Special Hell," he moaned, before heading off to his bedroom.

-----

The phone rang. Grumbling, Taka made to reach for the cellphone on his bedside table when two things stopped him. First, was the sight of Saito standing in his doorway with a smirk on his face. Second, was the warm underwear-clad body of that damn vixen Cecilia draped across his body as she slumbered peacefully.

"_What the fuck?!_" he whispered harshly, causing Cecilia to shift in her sleep and grasp his hand as his cell kept ringing.

"Oh, so this wasn't arranged," Saito chuckled. "Well, I'd say it's slightly better that she's actually 4 years younger than you brother. You should answer your phone."

He exited the room with another soft laugh and shut the door behind him, while Taka gritted his teeth. With his steady chanting mantra of "I'm going to special Hell!" he gently moved Cecilia over to her side as he went to pick up his phone. Sitting up at the bedside, he gave the pale girl a look before pressing the answer button on his phone.

"Sakamoto here," he said.

"_I hope I wasn't disturbing anything,_" Balalaika's amused voice answered.

Taka groaned. "You probably saved me from going to hell," he responded. "What's up Kapitan?"

"_Some Columbian fucks think they can peddle their shit in our city,_" she explained coldly. "_The other leaders and I have decided that they should be exterminated like the pests that they are. We don't want any idiot cartel thinking they can run their coke in our city._"

Takato hummed an affirmative. "Do you have any numbers, and their strength?" he asked.

_"Probably no more than 50 at best,"_ she answered. _"They don't have anything bigger than a small grenade launcher, looks like small-time cartel members. Should be easy picking for you Sakamoto-san."_

"Sure, what's the price?"

_"Their fool idiot of a leader is a slimy looking bastard with gold teeth,"_ Balalaika sniffed disdainfully. _"He's worth 10,000. Any subordinates are 1,000 each, sound fair?"_

"I'll clean house," Takato said with a grin. "Where are they located?"

She snorted, quite unladylike for a woman of her stature. _"In a tuna canning warehouse," _she told him. _"They thought they could hide from us, hah. Take care of it asap Taka-sama."_

"_Hai, ne-chan,"_ Takato answered. He got up off the bed and looked down at Cecilia. She woke up and smiled at him. "Morning," he said awkwardly.

"Oh, are you leaving?" she asked, as if her being in his bed was a completely normal thing. Maybe it was, in her mind.

Taka nodded. "Yeah, Miss Balalaika's got a job for me, good money," he said. With some hesitation, he leaned over and pressed his lips to her forehead. "I'll see you later, kay?"

She pulled him back down for a more proper kiss on the lips before drawing away and smiling. "Okay."

-----

"Well, if I'm going to Special Hell, then I'll bring these fuckers with me!" Taka declared as he stood outside of a canning warehouse in downtown Roanapur. He had both pistols out at his sides as he stood in front of the double front doors. A pair of men, probably acting as guards saw him and jumped, before running to the front door. One was blown to shreds as Taka's bullets made mincemeat out of his head, but the other got inside and slammed the door shut.

Taka swore as he heard the man yelling about an attack. He walked briskly to the doors, while checking the exterior of the warehouse out. Looking up to his left, the smirked. As he stopped in front of the doors, he raised his leg to kick them open.

-----

"Get ready to keel that fuckerr!" Carlos, the leader of this small cartel faction shouted, cocking his TMP. A large force of men pulled out automatic rifles, SMGs, pistols and bladed weapons. The man who ran in was holding a small single-shot grenade launcher, aiming it at the doors. They were suddenly slammed open, and everyone opened fire. Bullets rained on the doors and kicked up smoke from the brick that was vaporized. A loud explosion erupted right at the entrance as the grenade launcher fired. Once everyone ran out of ammo, they stopped firing.

Carlos smirked and spat at the ground. "Stupid fuck," he laughed. "Thinking he could take the Columbian cartel by himself!"

"Boss!" someone yelled. One of the men was pointing to the doorway, where the dust had settled. Lying crumpled on the ground was the headless body of the first guard, who was riddled with bullet holes.

Carlos swore. "Fuck, where is he?"

Meanwhile, Taka had hoisted himself up the rainpipe, and onto the catwalk outside the windows near the roof. He smirked evilly as he opened one, and crept inside. The men 50 feet down were scrambling around like headless chickens, searching for him. This was going to be fun. Running full tilt, Taka ran across the large, wide waterpipes that ran through the middle of the ceiling and leapt off, diving towards a lower set several feet away. As he soared in the air, he let loose gunfire, tearing into the cartel's ranks. They didn't react fast enough to spot him or even open fire as he landed quietly on the lower set of pipes.

The cartel reloaded their weapons in panic and most of them fired blindly at the ceiling, but Taka was already gone from the middle, creeping against the walls on the opposite side of where he entered. Scoping out the area, he found a nice hiding spot behind a thick wall of pipes about 10 feet away. He looked down and saw one of the men beginning to reload his grenade launching. Smiling, Taka aimed Ebony downwards.

Ricky was cursing as he reloaded his launcher. He bent the barrel downwards, and slid the used shell out. Reaching into the ammo crate on the truck next to him, he withdrew another 40mm round and slid it into the barrel. Before he could fold the barrel back onto the frame, and bullet struck the grenade shell's primer, causing the gunpowder to ignite and Ricky screamed as his launcher exploded, sending the explosive round into the floor at his feet and blowing him, and several men around him into pieces.

Taka cackled as he fired into the crowd below, every bullet finding a victim as he ran across the pipes, avoiding gunfire from below. He hid behind the thick section of pipes and caught his breath for a moment. Pressing the mag catches, he emptied the clips from his pistols and slid a pair of fresh ones in.

"Hey, fuckerr!" a voice yelled out. "Why donchu come out instead of hiding like a coward!"

"Okay motherfucker!" Taka yelled back, throwing himself off the pipes into the air. He twisted his body so that his head faced downwards and spun his body in mid air, while holding his pistols in an X, right-handed Ebony facing left, and Ivory facing right. As he spun rapidly in the air, 40 feet high, he squeezed the triggers rapidly, sending bullets slamming downwards, tearing into the cartel's ranks, some bullets passing through 2 or 3 bodies before stopping at the fourth. Gotta love armor-piercing bullets.

Holstering Ivory, Taka reached out with his now-free hand and grapped onto a bar that stuck out from the wall, which had a light dangling from it. Spinning around a few times, he fired Ebony a few times as he spun in 360 degrees, killing off a dozen more men. At the height of his last spin, he threw himself upwards and back onto the pipes. Bullets hammered the pipes below him, and to his luck, steam covered him in a blanket of stealth.

"Fuck, I can't see him!" the one man's voice growled angrily. Taka laughed, drawing random fire nearby, but never hitting him.

"You guys picked the wrong town to fuck around in!" he called, as he silently slid down the pipes to the ground. "The Kapitan doesn't like that."

Not even bothering to hide anymore, Taka reloaded his guns and walked dead on towards the remaining cartel members, killing each one with a bullet to the forehead. Soon, only the leader with the gold teeth remained, and the man sprayed at Taka wildly with whatever ammo remained in his TMP. Ten bullets that were stopped in mid air with Taka's bullets later, he dropped his gun in terror.

"Please!" he shouted, begging for his life. Taka rolled his eyes as he sprayed the walls with the man's golden teeth.

"Too easy," he muttered, changing clips again. "Ahh, so much bullets."

"Not bad," Balalaika's voice said behind him, clapping. He turned his head to see her in the doorway, accompanied by Boss Chang, who was giving Taka an impressed nod.

Balalaika's men, dressed in Russian greens, stormed the area, surveying the damage and counting bodies. The leader herself walked up to Taka with Chang beside her.

"As I said babe, he's capable of doing the higher up jobs," she told Chang. The Chinese man scrunched his nose.

"You know I hate that nickname," he said as he shook his hand with Taka. Taka bowed and kissed Balalaika's knuckles. "But he is very good. Better than me, I admit."

"So you were watching?" Taka asked curiously as Balalaika's men piled the bodies up.

"Of course," she replied. "I wanted to see just how good you really were. I didn't know you were _that_ good."

"I nearly had a heart attack when you did that crazy aerial shooting," Chang admitted. "You've got some balls kid."

"Ah, thank you Boss Chang," Taka said with a bow. "So Miss Balalaika, what did you think of my performance?"

She gave him an appreciative nod. "You're a pro," she said with a tiny undertone of admiration. "I"ll count on you from now on with big jobs, okay?"

Taka bowed again. "I'd be honored, ma'am."

Boris walked up with a clipboard. "What's the total?" Balalaika asked.

"Carlos is missing some teeth," Boris said with a chuckle and shake of his head at Taka, "and 33 men dead."

Balalaika shook her head. "Not even Two-Hands Revy could do that on her own," she said. She nodded to Boris, who opened a briefcase full of US bills.

"10,000 for Carlos, plus 1,000 times 33 equals a total of 43,000," Balalaika said. "Since the police weren't even alerted at all, I'll throw in an extra 5,000."

Taka bowed deeply. "You're too kind Miss Balalaika."

She smiled at him fondly. "You know, your rent is due in a week," she said. "I don't know about you, but I'd pay while I've got the money."

"Ah, yes," Taka agreed. "Makes sense."

Boris nodded, handing Taka many wads of 50s. "So here's 43,000 total, minus the 5,000 for rent," he told Taka, who didn't bother to count, a sign of respect for the man as well. "Thanks Sakamoto-san."

"Pleasure doing business with you, as always," Taka said with a small bow. He turned to Boss Chang. "It was also a pleasure to meet you again, though this time without being under fire," he said to the Triad, remembering the twin's bloodbath. Chang smiled.

"I may give you a call sometime, if that's okay with you Sakamoto-san," he asked.

"For sure, money is money," Taka said. With one last bow, he left.

-----

Boss Chang shook his head. "That kid is only 20 years old?" he asked. Balalaika nodded. "Where the hell did he and his brother come from?!"

She smirked. "Didn't you know Chang?" she asked. "Their last name is Sakamoto. _Sakamoto_."

Chang's eyes widened from behind his sunglasses. "I thought they were all wiped out?!" he gasped.

Balalaika watched the body cleaner, Sawyer, get to work on the Columbians. "That's what I thought as well," she said wistfully. "You know, the last time I saw Orroco's sons was what, 10 years ago? They were such sweet boys. Hard to imagine how they are now, but it's to be expected when your entire family was massacred by your own father."

Chang shook his head sadly. "Orroco was a wonderful, beautiful and deadly woman," he said. "Even the Triad felt her death. Nobunaga paid dearly for her murder, I hope?"

Balalaika's eyes narrowed at the memory of Nobunaga, Takato's father. "Saito killed the man himself," she said. "Their mother rests in peace because of that."

"Since then, the Washimine family has taken over the Yakuza," Chang continued where Balalaika left off. "The brothers Sakamoto dissapeared from Japan, with whatever money they had left from the family fortunes, some 20 million I think. They escaped to the UK, where they bought that magnificant boat of theirs, but the government sniffed them out and tried to hunt them down. Fortunetely, that yacht of theirs outran the British Navy somehow, and I guess here they are."

Balalaika smiled. "I think that Takato remembers me," she said. "He still acts like I'm his older sister even now."

Chang nodded. "Good kid, good shooter," he amended. "Well, I've had enough excitement for today. I'll see you at the next meeting."

-----

Takato pulled out his sleek cellphone and voice dialed Eda.

"_Church of Violence,"_ she droned.

"Hey Sister," Takato greeted.

_"Oh, oh, Taka!"_ she said, more cheerfully. _"What's up?"_

"I'm running low on ammo," he said. "Mind if I pay you and Sister Yolanda a business visit?"

_"Sure, come on over!"_ she said before hanging up.

Taka stopped by his new 2007 Honda CBR-800 and started the motor. The custom painted motorcycle (painted in a glossy pearl white feather scheme) purred to life as he put it in gear and headed uptown.

-----

Eda and Rico were waiting for him outside the chapel as he pulled up. Waving at them, he shut off the bike and put the kickstand out before disembarking.

"Nice to see you again Taka!" Rico said with a smile as he slung his M60 chaingun over his shoulder. "Sister Yolanda is waiting inside."

"Hey, why don't you call me Sister instead of Sis?" Eda snapped as Taka passed them into the chapel.

"Hello young gunman," Sister Yolanda greeted as she sipped her tea. "What can the Church of Violence do for you Takato Sakamoto?"

"Reverant greetings, Sister," Takato greeted with a bow. "I'm in need of some ammunition and supplies."

She poured the younger man his own cup of delicious tea and he thanked her before drinking. "What do you need?" she asked.

"I'm running low on bullets, and clips for my guns," Takato explained. "I normally use handloaded armor piercing rounds, but I don't want to keep spending a lot of money on them. .45ACP in FMJ will suffice for now. Also, I need 20 round clips for my pistols, which use the Colt 1911 kind of double stack clips."

Sister Yolanda stroked her cheek. "The bullets we can get easily," she said. "The clips may take a few days. How much were you thinking of?"

Takato rubbed his chin. "Hmm, I'd say an even split of $15,000," he said. "7,500 worth of bullets and 7,500 worth of clips."

Sister Yolanda chuckled as she sipped her tea. "That's quite a lot of supplies," she said. "You must want to start a war."

Taka laughed as he too, sipped his tea. "Not at all," he answered. "I just don't really like hunting for spent clips after a gunfight."

Sister Yolanda set her teacup down. "Okay," she said. "$15,000 up front and you'll get your things before the end of the week."

Takato reached into his jacket and withdrew money. He gave the old one-eyed woman $16,000. "A donation to the church," he smiled.

"The Church of Violence thanks you young man," Sister Yolanda smiled back, stroking his chin like a grandmother would. "Now, you go on and shoo! I'll have Rico deliver everything to your yacht."

Takato stood up and bowed. "Thank you kindly, Sister."

-----

"Where have you been all day?" Saito asked as he waited outside the Mikyuki on the dock as Taka pulled up on his bike.

"What's up brother?" Taka asked, shutting the engine off. Saito shook his head and headed for his parked Porsche. It was an old model 1995 911 Twin Turbo model in jet black.

"Follow me, I've got something to show you!"

Saito started his car and started to pull away. Taka looked up to the deck of the Mikyuki and saw Cecilia standing at the railing, looking at him. "I'll be home after this," he called to her. She smiled and headed back inside.

-----

"The Goof Fest?" Takato wrinkled his nose at the electric neon words on the building in front of him. "A strip club? Isn't this Rowan Pigeon's place?"

"Not anymore!" Saito said as he opened the doors and they entered. "He was forced out of town after what happened with the twins. Turns out he had a small hand in making them with his snuff films. Balalaika wasn't impressed."

"I can't try to pity him," Takato said as he looked around. Since it was daytime, the club was functioning as a simple bar and restaraunt, and the dancers were dressed as waitresses. They all stopped by Saito to greet him enthusiastically.

"I bought the place from Balalaika after she seized it," Saito said proudly, watching the business with a smile. "Figured I'd put the place to good use, and the employees won't end up on the street this way."

"So... in a way you were doing something good while standing to make a lot of profit in the background," Taka said with a matching smile. "You sneaky bastard. Can we afford this?"

Saito nodded. "Balalaika just handed it to me, so I didn't have to pay for the building," he said. "But even the monthly fees are reasonable. 5,000 for rent, and 5,000 from the profits go to Hotel Moscow."

"So our total monthly rent is 15,000," Taka sighed. "Well, we can manage nicely. I just finished a job today, made 48,000. I paid our rent a week early, so we don't have to worry about it for another 5 weeks. I then paid the Church for more ammo and supplies, so that was another 15 plus my 1,000 donation. That leaves me with 27."

"I don't have to pay rent for another month, so we'll be fine," Saito said. "We've still got about 300 grand from what Cecilia stole from Verrocchio, but most of it's hers anyways."

"You know she'd share it with us in a heartbeat," Taka said. "But it's good that we leave it with her. She won't spend any of it, so it's a nice savings fund. Come on, let's go, the scent of sex is making me woozy."

They left the Goof Fest and stopped to look up at the building. "I sincerely hope you're not keeping that name," Taka commented. Saito shook his head.

"I'm renaming it soon," he said. "I'm still deciding on the name."

He turned to his little brother. "What's going on with you and the kid?" he asked.

Taka slapped his forehead. "Ah, why'd you have to bring it up?" he muttered. "And calling her 'kid' makes it sound even worse."

"I'm curious."

"I don't even know what's going on," Taka sighed. "But I can't say that I don't worry about her."

"Hmm. Let's head home."

They used the remote control on Saito's Porsche to open the rear hanger door of the yacht that led to the built in garage. Taka also had one on his bike. The garage was normally used for launching dingy's or small boats, but the brothers had installed titanium mesh floors so that cars could be parked there. It could fit 3 family sized sedans with a tight fit.

Saito went off to the living room for some satellite TV and Taka met Cecilia in his room. "So, I take it you're sleeping here now?" he asked in amusement as she placed her clothes alongside his in the drawers.

"If you don't mind," she called over her shoulder, giving him a sweet smile.

He hesitated. "I guess not," he admitted. "Uh. No getting naked in front of me, okay?"

She cocked her head to the side a bit. "If you don't want me to, then I won't," she agreed. "Can we go out? I've been on this ship for a week! I want to see Roanapur!"

Taka's stomach growled. "Yeah sure," he said, picking up her handbag and giving it to her. "Let's get some good food and go shopping yeah? I finished a job today and made quite a bit of money."

Cecilia quickly changed into a summer dress in the large walk-in closet and came back out, taking Taka's hand. They left the Miyuki and continued on foot to the city, fingers interlaced.

Life went on in Roanapur.

* * *

Note: Their mother's real name was Miyuki, but everyone called her Orroco, which was her Yakuza nickname 


	4. Greenback Jane

Chapter Rating: R

I suppose you can call this Loli if you're really stingy like that, but remember that she's technically 16 years old and I've written HP fiction that involved 15 year olds doing the nasty. Ginny was 15 during 6th year right?

* * *

_Greenback Jane_

It had been a few months since Taka had admitted to himself that he was going to Special Hell, and began to cautiously date Cecilia. He never let things go any further than hugs, hand-holding or light kisses, and though she was dissapointed (and most very likely sexually frustrated), Cecilia understood Takato's honorable intentions towards her. That just made her fall in love with him even more.

She rapidly began to shed her Dissociative Identity Disorder, and whatever remnents of her psychotic self and brother's half was fading into nothingness as she became more cheerful and lively. While some residents of Roanapur still regarded her warily, none could deny that she was leading a normal life now, and no one dared upset Takato himself. While she never held her M1918 Browning Automatic rifle again, she was still extremely dangerous and cunning, but she devoted most of her time to singing and shopping.

Still, that didn't stop several people from making fun of Takato for dating a minor, despite the fact that Roanapur itself was pretty much devoid of law and had teenage girls working the strip clubs (minus Saito's, his was strictly 18+). Revy's favorite name for her "little brother" was "Loli-Taka", and Eda enjoyed using "Taka-Pedo". Rock could only be happy for the couple. Saito suggested that his younger brother replace his queen-sized bed with a cradle, since he was robbing it anyways, but it resulted in an ass kicking that left him grinning ear-to-ear at the end. Benny was as supportive as Rock was, truly wanting to see the girl change for the better, and Dutch was apathetic as usual, but he occasionally spent time with Cecilia to hear her sing one of his favorite songs.

Saito's strip club was a nice success, the renamed "Club Vu" (for some odd reason) attracting many patrons with its young, lively dancers and great entertainment. It paid the rent off quite easily, and business was booming for now. Saito was a very skilled gunman, but he preferred to run businesses unlike his brother, who enjoyed his jobs, but of course, not killing senselessly.

(AN: The first time my brother watched Black Lagoon, he saw a strip club with the name "Vu" and he said (and I quote), "HAH my name is the name of the whore house in episode 4... coincidence? I think NOT!")

Balalaika doted upon Takato sometimes, and sent him on special jobs that would usually bring $30-50,000USD pays. She would sometimes come visit the Miyuki and have a home-cooked dinner with the little family, and no longer gave Cecilia dirty looks. Boss Chang had hired Takato once to get rid of some competition Triad that was trying to get in the area, and had won the young man's business as well. Since the Verrocchio family in Roanapur had been eliminated by the twins, their area was quickly taken over by Hotel Moscow and the Triad, and each faction paid Cecilia a nice sum for the land since they knew the rule "You keep what you kill".

Takato had bought a dock right next to Black Lagoon's dock and office with most of his money, and the two groups hung out frequently. Revy would always challenge Taka to a shooting competitions, and would lose every one, but at least her gun fighting skills grew each time. It seemed that Taka was getting more infamous than Two-Hands, and had garnered another nickname, "Devil-Boy" from his older "sister" since his shooting style copied that of the video game his guns represented.

It didn't hurt that Taka's enemies would scream "Demon!" whenever he came after them either.

-----

Takato blinked his eyes open as he awoke from slumber. It was early in the morning and he woke up to Cecilia waking up on top of him. The girl vehemently refused to wear anything other than underwear or negligee to bed, and would always lie on top of him. It was affecting his nightly blood flow severely.

"Good morning," she breathed, smiling at him with sparkling grey-blue eyes. She gave him a kiss. Taka, not really that conscious, automatically deepened the kiss as he pressed his lips against velvet ones as she purred in surprise. Soon, they began to tongue-wrestle and his hands started to wonder as she placed hers on his naked chest. Taka usually slept in pajama bottoms only.

(LEMON WARNING! IF YOU'RE NOT INTO THAT, OPEN THE FIND WINDOW AND SEARCH FOR: Saito raised an eyebrow)

Takato became more aware as Cecilia began to rub herself on his thigh, and he felt her damp panties against his pants, giving him an automatic reaction.

"Special Hell, here I come," he panted as she began to intensify her ministrations. "Fuck, 16 is better than 10."

He reached down and tore the bra from her chest, eliciting an excited gasp from the younger girl as she pressed her now-bare chest into his right hand. Her tiny breast fit into his palm perfectly, and he massaged it gently, making her pink nipple become erect. She purred softly as he used both hands to rub, squeeze and massage her perfect small breasts, and tweaked the nipples. She pushed herself up on Takato's body and allowed him to take a nipple in his mouth, which he suckled and nipped lightly on. Her moans were getting louder and Taka felt her wetness increase as her crotch pressed against his stomach. Opening his mouth wider, he took nearly half of her breast into his mouth and sucked and licked at it, making the girl writhe pleasantly on top of him.

Using great skill, Cecilia used her feet and toes to slide his pants down his legs, and he kicked out of them, along with his boxers. He forced a hand into her lacy panties and pressed his middle finger against her incredibly wet sex, getting a feel of her folds. She moaned loudly this time, placing her head on top as his as he attacked her opposite breast with his mouth this time, and his other hand palmed the recently left one. He played around inside her underwear some more with his left hand, his fingertips exploring what felt like perfect folds of flesh as he pressed his thumb against her throbbing nub and his middle finger dipped into her depths.

She shrieked and instantly came, to Takato's awe. She must have been extremely aroused. His hand became slick with her juices, and he pushed his middle finger all the way into her, making her body squirm magnificantly. Her round ass was rubbing on his throbbing erection, and he wanted nothing more than to plunge into her deeply, but he wanted to tease and torture her longer. Her inner walls clamped down on his single finger leaving no surface untouched, and he pumped his hand slowly, awed at her nearly crushing tightness. She was positively gushing down her thighs now, her panties sopping wet, so he used his wrist and a fancy manoeuver to remove her underwear as he continued to pump at her.

Out of the blue, her tiny hand gripped his raging hard on and she used her free one to coat it with her own love juice, before sliding it down his shaft. He grunted at the wonderful feeling, and she began to stroke him gently, while he slipped another finger into her, her walls pinching both fingers together nearly painfully. Without warning, he stopped his attack on her breasts, and used his free hand to grip her waist, where he used both arms to slide her hips over to his head, and her opening to his mouth.

She looked just as how she felt. A beautiful pink slit, the perfection of youth, and her folds tightly pressed together. Her nub was painfully visible, and he gave it a lick, feeling her legs shudder before running his tongue along her folds. More liquid poured out of her slowly, and her musk tasted sweet, surprisingly. Taka tried to push his tongue into her, but it was too tight to force entry into. He settled for making Cecilia moan loudly as his tongue attacked her sweet opening, leaving no flesh untouched and battering at her clit.

He was still sitting up against the headboard, holding the small girl strongly by the hips as she pressed herself against the wall behind him as he assaulted her sex. She was moaning, groaning and continuously twitching as she orgasmed several times from Taka's foreplay. Finally, having no will to wait any longer, Taka removed his tongue from the outer regions of her crevice and swallowed what juice was left on it, before lowering Cecilia to his lap. She stared deeply into his eyes before kissing him even deeper, tasting herself on his lips.

"I can't wait any longer," she begged, grinding into his erection. "I want you in me now!"

Takato didn't need any further orders as he grabbed her hips once again, and lifted, making her fall onto her back as he got to his knees, raising her hips into the air. Her tight slit was dripping, waiting for him, and he moved his hands down to her thighs and parted them widely, positioning himself. She watched with wide eyes as he pushed the tip of his rock hard phallus into her folds and she moaned in anticipation. "You're much bigger than brother was," she panted.

Taka said nothing but pressed forward, parting her nether lips slowly as he pushed. She was ridiculously tight, which was a no-brainer because of her age, and Taka had to use quite a bit of force to insert his tip in her. Once he had two inches in, he paused, relishing in her wonderful youth as she clamped him tightly. Cecilia couldn't wait any longer and wrapped her long, thin legs around his waist and locked her ankles together. Using her strong leg muscles, she forced Taka's length into her cunny as her inner walls drove him delirious with pleasure. He nearly came from her action. It was no doubt, the best pussy he had ever had.

Gripping Cecilia by the ass now, Taka began to thrust into her slowly, pulling out nearly all the way slowly, then slamming back into her as she began screaming in pleasure. His movements became more erratic as she began to move in rhythm with him, and flesh slapped onto flesh as he drove into her as hard as he could, battering her pussy with no abandon. She was clutching onto her small breasts with both hands, biting her lower lip as she experienced a new, higher sense of pleasure and her nymphomania was driven to all time highs as it was finally sated in her life. Taka was raising her hips so high that only her shoulders and head were left on the bed as he slammed into her over and over. She came again and again, each wave bringing her to brink of unconsciousness as she experienced at least 10 or 11 orgasms, but who's counting.

Takato, having felt her walls press tightly against his member as she exploded, finally followed, flooding her with his seed. Her love juices squirted out around his throbbing cock and coated his lower stomach and thighs lightly. He collapsed gently on top of Cecilia, who wrapped her arms around him lovingly as she kissed his face several times.

"Now _that_," he panted, smiling at her tiredly, "is a good fucking morning!"

-----

Saito raised an eyebrow as his brother walked onto the deck of the Miyuki. "You look like you've had a good morning," he commented casually.

"Don't you start," Taka warned lightly, but he had a silly grin on his face. He fanned his face. "Phew! It's fucking hot!"

"So?"

"So what?"

"Was it _awesome_?"

"Well worth going to Special Hell for."

-----

"So Taka," Revy said with an evil grin as he walked into Black Lagoon's office, "We - _heard_ - you had a very good morning!"

Taka raised an eyebrow at her not-so-subtle jab. "What, you heard us fucking too?" he asked.

She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fucking ruiner," she muttered. "Well, you're really a pedo now!"

Takato shrugged, pulling a beer from the fridge and opening it. "Just cuz you have irregular periods and can't get any from Rock doesn't mean you can dump on me," he retorted, just as said man walked into the room.

"TAKA YOU ASSHOLE!" Revy screamed, punching him on the arm. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT?"

Taka smirked. "What? That you had irregular periods, or that you liked Rock?" he asked.

"What?" Rock asked in confusion as he looked at Revy, who was turning a deep shade of red as she glared ominously at Taka.

"Well Eda told me about the irregularity and as for Rock..." he trailed off. "Well everyone knows you like him."

"I - I - You! FUCK YOU!" Revy finally shouted, giving Taka the finger and storming out of the office.

Taka chuckled while Rock look horrified. "Oh no, you've gone and gotten her real angry this time!"

Taka waved him off. "Don't worry about it brother," he said dismissively. "You wait and see, I give her an hour, maybe two before she storms back in here and gives you the shagging of a lifetime."

"_WHAT?_" Rock yelped, stumbling backwards. "You're joking!"

"Wanna bet on it?" Taka asked, slapping a 50 onto the table. "50 bucks says she screws your brains out by lunch time."

Dutch came in and tossed another 50 onto the table. "I'm in for it," he said with a chuckle. Benny also added two 20s and a 10. "If you lose Rock, you owe us each $50, but you'll get something good out of it I think."

"You guys are all against me!" Rock whined, his head falling into his lap. Benny continued to laugh at him as Dutch sat next to Taka, snapping open his own Heineken.

"Nice job, distracting them from the fact that you and young Cecilia got intimate this morning," Dutch commented.

Taka shrugged. "Sorry about the noise, didn't know she was a screamer."

"You should have, what with that voice and lungs she has."

-----

It was near 2PM where a completely dazed and limping Rock walked out of the Lagoon office as Revy blew him a kiss before heading off to the Church of Violence, stating that Eda wanted to talk to her about some woman named Jane. Rock was supposed to pick the two women up later in the evening once he recouperated. He walked back up to the office room and collapsed onto the couch, admist snickers all round.

"We'll take our money when you're more refreshed," Dutch chuckled as he poured himself some vodka. "It took Revy long enough, I think. Do you need an icebag?"

"Wow, wow," Rock muttered as he began to babble in Japanese.

Benny laughed. "Look's like our Rock has become a real man!" he chortled. "But I think Revy broke him."

Dutch nodded. "She probably had good 4-5 years of frustration, and she always did get jealous of any women that hit on Rock," he said sagely. He paused. "What the hell am I talking about, ugh."

Taka tossed his empty can into the garbage as cracked his knuckles. "Am I good at predicting the future or what?" he bragged.

"Got any numbers for this week's lottery?" Benny asked with a smile.

"Sorry, love lives only," Taka said, waving his hand apologetically.

-----

_"Taka-sama, I've got a new job for you,"_ Balalaika's voice said over the headset's speaker.

"Shoot," Taka said as he raced around the night city, bored. He had a Bluetooth headset on when Balalaika called.

_"Some stupid Yanks have shot up the Church of Violence, and Lobos says that their idiot leader won't take our warnings to stop causing a mess and is disrupting life here,"_ Balalaika explained. _"However, the Yanks are after some counterfeit money launderer named Janet Bhai, an Indian, who is currently with Sister Eda and Revy from what I hear. They can take care of everything that comes their way, but I want you to eliminate the Yank leader."_

"Sure thing _ne-chan_," Taka said. "I've got nothing to do tonight anyways."

_"Not even your little girlfriend?"_ Balalaika asked in an amused voice. Taka nearly slid out on his bike.

"What the hell, news travels fast here," he grumbled.

_"Oh, I don't mean anything by it, I'm happy for you,"_ she said. _"Listen, That Janet women stands to make us a tidy sum of money, but the Yanks have called out all the local hitmen on her. Revy and Eda can take care of themselves, I'm sure, but make sure that the counterfeiter doesn't die. After everyone's distracted with them, I want you to take care of the Yank and Lobos."_

"Lobos?" Taka asked.

_"That snivelling imbecile brought the trouble here,"_ Balalaika explained. _"We don't want Florida trash stinking up our city any more. Take care of him as well. The payout is $30,000."_

"Americans aren't worth much, _ne_?"

_"Of course not."_

"I'll swing by the hotel when I'm done then, _ne-chan_."

_"Have fun!"_

-----

Taka arrived at Black Lagoon's office to find it on fire and on the verge of collapsing. There were scores of hitmen littering the area and Taka grinned evilly. Speeding up, he zoomed towards a small group of hitmen and released his hold on the handlebar, throwing himself forward into the air several feet above his bike, which travelled underneath him. As he travelled face-first, he drew Ebony and Ivory and fired into the hitmen, killing them all quickly. The recoil of his guns slowed Taka's flight so that he moved back above the seat and he settled into his bike neatly.

Pulling around the back, he saw Revy, Eda, Rock and an upside-down woman with her skirt over her head, a victim of pantyshot. The Indian woman - he could tell from her smooth caramel legs - righted herself up and pressed her skirt and the sweater wrapped around her waist back down her legs, revealing dyed blond hair and glasses on a quite pretty face. She was probably of mixed descent, since she had a western name, Janet. Taka saw some dead or unconscious hitmen lying around on the ground and pulled up to Revy and the others.

"Dutch won't like this at all," he announced as he straddled his bike while standing in front of the group. "That Janet Bhai?"

"What's it to you?" she asked.

"Thanks for confirming it for me," Taka laughed, making her fume. "Hey, your buddies are heading this way, shouldn't you run?"

Revy looked to the dock, where the Black Lagoon PT boat was speeding towards. "They're here, let's move it!" she shouted. The others began to run as she looked back to Taka. "Hey, little bro, mind slowing them down?" she asked as she ran away.

"Sure!" Taka shouted back, turning around on his bike to face the hitmen with his guns drawn. "Hey, dumbasses!"

Every one of them skidded to a halt. They all looked at eachother nervously. "Uh, hey Sakamoto-san," a large man with a minigun greeted nervously. "Er, what's up?"

"You shooting up my buddies?" Taka asked in an innocent, but deadly voice.

"N-n-n-n-no Sakamoto-san, _we _ain't!" the man stammered, dropping his minigun (Taka made note of this). The others followed suit, except for a chunky American with a flamethrower. He stepped forward, making the others moan and scamper away.

"You must be new here," Takato said, twirling his guns in a carefree manner. "Not many men would have the balls to challenge me."

"You're in my way," the man said with a cheerful look on his face. "I so want to burn the flesh of those young women. You know, my wife didn't last five minutes but they look like they'll be long and fun."

He raised his flamethrower, but Taka fired a shot from each pistol, tearing into the man's gut and ripping out behind him, striking the fuel tank and causing him to explode and rain little chunks of charred meat around the area.

"The creepy ones are always the fucking normal types," he muttered. He looked at all the hitmen. "Hey you stupid shits, go home!" he yelled, and they scattered.

Some coughing caught his attention. Dismounting his bike, he walked over to a piece wall that was still standing and found Shenhua leaning against it, coughing up blood and clutching a bullet hole in her right side.

"Jeez Shenhua, you're stupid too?" Taka asked in disbelief. She wrinkled her nose at him. "You know Saito will be dissapointed in you."

The two had recently started to date, if you could call it that.

"I was bored, so I take stupid little bounty," she muttered, wiping blood from her chin. "Stupid bitch and slut got lucky, that's all."

Taka shook his head and threw her free arm over his shoulder, helping her stand. "Well, Saito would be dissapointed in me if I let you die, so let's get you to a hospital."

A figure stepped out of the darkness and Taka's free hand whipped out Ivory and automatically shot at it. A muffled "OOOF!" was heard and the figure flew back several feet into some rubble. Taka brought Shenhua over to some guy with dyed white hair lying in the rubble with a bullet-proof vest. "Fuck, I miss my armor piercing bullets."

"I won't fight you!" the figure gasped. He stood up, rubbing his chest. "I'm Rotton, the Wizard."

Takato raised an eyebrow. "Like... really?" he asked.

Rotton shrugged. "Whatever," he said. He spotted a small figure crumpled amidst the rubble. "Think she's alive?"

Taka saw the form of Sawyer the Cleaner. "She better be, or Miss Balalaika will be dissapointed that the city's best cleaner is dead," he said. "Rotton, take her to the hospital while I take Shenhua."

"Got it," Rotton said, sprinting over to Sawyer, who was thankfully alive.

"Don't forget her Ultravoice over there!" Taka warned. "She'll cry like a baby if she doesn't wake up with it next to her!"

-----

"So you guys are alright?" Takato said into the headset as he zoomed to the hospital at the other side of the city, after dropping Shenhua at the nearest one. He had also picked up the M134 minigun and stashed it on the Miyuki.

_"Yeah, we had a straggler get on the Lagoon, but Eda took care of the cowboy,"_ Dutch answered. _"Benny's found himself a new girlfriend with the counterfeiter too."_

"So it's all a happy ending," Takato said with a smile as he stopped in front of the hospital. "Well, almost."

"Who the fuck are you?" the nameless American spat from his hospital bed. Lobos sat shakily in the nearby chair. Taka entered the room, smirking at the two Americans as the door locked behind his jacket tails with a click.

"You pissed off some powerful people today," he told the man.

"Ha, fuck you guys!" the man said arrogantly. "You small-time gangsters think you're badass! I could turn you into mincemeat anyday!"

"Oh, don't," Lobos murmured frantically, pathetically from the corner. "You don't know who he is..."

"Listen Yank, I don't care if you're some bigshot back in Florida," Taka said, pulling up a chair beside the bed. "I don't care if your Don or whatever has a thousand gunmen. Here in Roanapur, _you _are the small-time gangster faggot. Now, time to apologize for Hotel Moscow and the Triad."

Taka stood up and faced away from the man, his pistols resting against his butt from their position. Still, the man was arrogant.

"Hah, I don't need to apologize to a punk like you!" he spat.

In an instant, Taka spun around and had both Ebony and Ivory in the classic Dante aiming pose, hands crossed over eachother. He fired both guns at the same time, splattering the man's brains against the clean white walls. Lobos stuttered to his left.

"I tried to warn him you know, but he -"

Taka pointed his left hand - Ivory - to Lobos' direction and blew the man's head clean off his lower jaw. Twirling the guns, he holstered them and left.

-----

"Hey, thanks for bringing Shen to the hospital," Saito said as Takato entered the living room. Said woman smiled up at him from the couch as she tenderly pressed a hand on her bandages.

"Yeah, thanks Taka," she said in her broken English. "You mind if I spend night with your brother?"

"Nope," Taka said as he reached into his jacket, pulling out the three wads of hundred dollar bills and tossing them onto the table. "Give Shenhua a grand for her troubles, then put the rest into the safe, kay _ani-san_?"

Both older people grinned at him and waved as he went upstairs.

Rolling his head, Takato sighed as his bones cracked nicely in his neck. _Another job complete, not bad,_ he thought. _Good work, good money and definitely some good perks..._

He opened the door to his bedroom, where the sight of Cecilia dressed only in a transparent lacy black bra and thong (complete with a garter that drove him wild for some reason) waited for him on his bed. He grinned and shut the door before tossing his jacket onto the nearby chair.

_Such as a half-naked nymphomaniac girlfriend waiting for you at home after a long day_, he finished as he threw Cecilia down onto the bed, making her giggle wildly.


	5. Seeing home

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

_Seeing home_

It had been nearly a year since Takato and Saito Sakamoto had come to Roanapur, Thailand. In the past months, each brother had made themselves notorious through their experiences with the mafia and citizens. Saito was an established owner of several businesses now, which included his strip club, some fancy restaraunts and a few motels he bought from Hotel Moscow. Takato was a very accomplished hitman/assassin and personal bodyguard, having provided protection for Balalaika, Boss Chang and their high-ranking friends many times. He had a kill count in Roanapur of well over a thousand hits, reaching Revy's 1,211 quickly. Of course, most of hers were random killings from when someone annoyed the shit out of her.

Cecilia was utterly devoted to Takato, and truly loved him endlessly. While her needs had to be satiated at least 4-5 times a week, Taka loved her nonetheless. Thankfully, she hadn't gotten pregnant yet. She had taken up to managing one of Saito's sushi restaraunts, and was doing finely on her own job. She had her own office on the second floor, and her trusty M1918 was strapped under her massive oak desk.

Rock and Revy had finally gotten over themselves and married, to everyone's surprise. Revy actually _did_ have irregular periods, so any sex Rock got were few and far in-between from eachother, but the man was happy to be with her otherwise. They had been married for 2 months now, and so far the newlyweds were quite happy about it. Takato had bought Rock a nice 2-man sailboat as a wedding gift, and the man would take his wife out to sea occasionally for a romantic getaway, which Revy secretly adored. Rock had initially tried to refuse the $140,000 sailboat, but Revy had nearly kicked his ass about it.

Dutch had gotten the couple several very old and expensive bottles of wine and vodka he had been saving for this special occasion, for he generally though of Revy as a daughter-sister most of the time. Benny bought Rock his own laptop and Revy some clips and ammo, which both appreciated nicely. Janet had moved in with them and Benny, and gave them $10,000 worth of her new counterfeited bills, which were pretty much identical to US Mint. Balalaika had even came to the wedding with Boris as usual, and gave her "little sister" an unexpected hug and told them that rent for their office was waived for 3 months. Boss Chang came as well and gave the couple a Mercedes sedan. Saito had paid for and organized the wedding with the help of his girls from Club Vu, and it was held at the Church of Violence, with Eda as bridesmaid in some whack twisted way.

So, life wasn't going too bad until one day Balalaika dropped the bomb on Rock, Taka and Saito.

-----

"Go back to Tokyo?" they all echoed.

Balalaika nodded. "We have some business with the Yakuza there," she explained. "Rock, I want you to be my translator, and you two brothers can be peacekeepers."

Saito looked at Takato nervously. "Balalaika, I don't think it would be wise for Takato or I to go to Japan," he said nervously.

"Don't worry about it," she said soothingly, flicking the ash off her cigar. "No one blamed you two for what happened, and I'm sure no one even remembers your faces."

"How did you...?"

She smiled. "I figured you wouldn't remember me," she said, closing her eyes as fond memories flooded her mind. "Of course, it was before you two locked away your past that you knew me. I used to hang out with Orroco all the time, and babysit you two."

_"Nanny Bala?"_ Takato asked incredulously. "_You_ used to look after us all those years ago? Why, you - you're a mob boss, what would you do with children?"

Balalaika smiled at him. "I can't have children," she said. "Because of my war wounds. When I met Orroco, or Miyuki, your mother, I admit that I fell in love with you little rascals. I made any and every excuse I could to beg off work and babysit you two while your mother was out. When she died, I vowed that I would look after you two, but you dissapeared."

She puffed on her cigar a few times. "And then, one year ago, you both stumble back onto my lap," she smiled. "Didn't you ever wonder why I liked you two so much?"

"We thought it was because of our elite skills," Takato grumbled. "But is it really you?"

Balalaika nodded. "I have my mafia side and my side only for you boys," she said gently, surprising Rock, who had heard anything but. "So, will you come to Japan with me? You know I won't let anything happen to you."

Saito nodded slowly. "If you say we'll be fine _obasan_, then we'll follow you anywhere," he declared firmly.

Balalaika let a tear come to her eye as she came from her desk and gave the two a hug each, patting their heads. "Oh, don't look so surprised Rock," she scolded. "I can have my days off, right?"

Rock laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry Balalaika, I'm just not used to it, but you're right of course," he said.

Balalaika waved her cigar around. "I trust this news will never, ever reach the ears of Mrs. Okajima?" she asked. Rock nodded with a goofy grin at the "Mrs." part.

-----

"ROCK! YOU STUPID BASTARD!" Revy's voice screamed as the three men walked up the stairs to the newly restored Black Lagoon office. They opened the door and dodged out of the way as Revy shot at Rock, who took cover behind the TV stand.

"What'd I do?!" he cried in terror.

"I'm fucking PREGNANT you sonuvabitch!" she screeched, emptying her guns and sinking to her knees in tears. Rock hurried over to her and swept her into an embrace, but not before sliding her guns away as a precaution.

"That's great, isn't it?" he asked worriedly.

"How am I supposed to help Dutch and the others out on jobs if I'm _FAT_?" she bawled.

Dutch came out of his room. "We can manage without you Revy," he said, only making her cry louder. "Really, don't worry about it."

"How can pay for things if I can't make money?" she sobbed. Everyone was feeling totally uneasy around a crying Revy... It just... didn't happen.

"I'll be bringing home the bacon then," Rock said determinedly. "Don't worry a bout it sweetheart."

"Don't even think about using a gun, you'll probably kill the others," Revy muttered, wiping her face. "And how are you going to make money?"

"Balalaika called me today, she needs me to act as translator for her in Tokyo!" Rock said, wiping Revy's tear-stained face with his handkerchief. "So I'm going to be making a nice bit of cash. Besides, you didn't think your friends would let you go broke, would you?"

"Don't think about it for a second!" Benny said with a grin as Jane held onto his waist, slightly disturbed at the sight of a non-homicidal, crying Revy. Yes, it was _that_ wierd. And also wicked blackmail material.

"We're going too, so we'll make sure he's fine," Takato said soothingly.

Revy stood up abruptly and reached for her guns. "What, I'm not helpless you idiot," she sniffed. "The baby's not even the size of a grain of rice yet! I'll be fine for a month at least!"

"Yeah, but won't we have to deal with hormonal rampages and odd cravings?" Saito whined. "Hey, hey, whoa, whoa!" he cried when Revy pointed her guns at him.

-----

"It's been almost a while since I've been here," Rock reminisced as the group of four walked the streets of Tokyo.

"Me too," Saito remarked.

"Me three!" Taka chimed in.

"It's cold," Revy muttered as she bunched her shoulders together. "And snowing. It snowed like this back in NY too."

"You decided on wearing a skirt and stockings," Rock reminded her. "So don't complain."

"Fuck you. I love you."

"I love you too."

They shopped around Shibuya for a short while since Balalaika had no need for them at the moment. Revy was hit on by several men, but Rock's rare, furious glare drove them away once they found out she was married. The three Japanese men played bagboys for her as she bought several nice outfits (including many warm pants) and Takato bought several new CD albums from his various favorite popular J-Pop artists. Like AYU(!!!!).

Revy was forced to wear a thick jacket to hide her Sword Cutlasses since she refused to leave Roanapur without them, stating that a pregnant woman needed better protection than a shitty Tokarev pistol. She had picked them up via illegal import while the Sakamoto brothers had theirs on them since they arrived with Balalaika via her cargo ship, instead of plane like Rock and Revy since they came a day later. Taka also had his pistols hidden under his jacket as well, in their usual place on his butt, and he wore a full length jacket now. Saito's Infinity was in its usual place under his jacket.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Revy asked as their taxi came near glowing lights.

"Looks like a festival," Rock remarked.

"Ooh, I want to go!" Revy exclaimed. "Tell the driver to pull over!"

-----

"Where's the ferris wheel?" Revy asked as they walked down the isles of vendors.

"Japanese festivals don't have rides," Rock explained as they passed several food vendors. "Instead they have local small businesses show off their wares."

"Well, at least there's a shooting game," Revy said depressedly as she paid the vendor and picked up the air rifle. It shot corks. She started shooting the targets easily as the men went to get some noodles to eat.

Takato turned around with his foam bowl and someone bumped into him. His reflexes saved his delicious meal from turning his Versace suit into shit.

""Oh, forgive me!"" the girl who walked into him apologized. She was pretty attractive, with long black hair and a pair of glasses perched on her nose.

Takato smiled. ""Nothing was lost, so it's fine," he answered. ""This is a nice festival, _ne_?""

She smiled at him and decided to join him, Saito and Rock at their table as they ate. A large, serious looking man followed her. Takato didn't say or show anything about it, but it looked as if the man was bodyguarding the girl. He had a flash in his memory about various Yakuza families, and remembered a tiny little girl from his past.

""Oh yes, it's very nice,"" she said. ""We have a stand over there, right Ginji?""

The tall man silently nodded from behind his sunglasses.

""That's great!" Rock said enthusiastically. ""My wife wanted to see one, so she dragged us over here.""

He pointed to Revy, who was apathetically shooting down whatever target her air rifle pointed at with one hand. The girl raised an eyebrow at her.

""She doesn't look that excited,"" she commented.

""Well, she thought it'd be like a western festival, plus she's pregnant so her moods are ever changing,"" Rock said with a laugh. The girl smiled.

""Oh, I'm happy for you!"" she said, patting his arm.

"Thanks. Hey, I'm Rokuro Okajima, that's Takato and Saito Saka -""

""Pleasure to meet you,"" Saito interrupted, giving Rock a death glare. Takato _hmph'ed_. So Saito recognized the girl as well.

Rock laughed nervously. ""Right, sorry, the Saka brothers,"" he said, getting a nod of approval from Saito. He didn't notice it, but Taka saw the man named Ginji shift slightly.

""I'm Yukio Washimine and this is Ginji Matsuzaki,"" the girl introduced.

"Ah, Rock I'm bored," Revy sighed, plopping down next to her husband. "That damn vendor said my last one didn't count cuz I knocked the target down. I swear, it was fucking weighted."

"Here, have some food," Rock said, trying to placate his wife. Her docile mood couldn't last forever.

"I should go give him a new ass hole," she growled, eating the noodles with a vengeance while glaring evilly at the vendor. The large form of Ginji stepped in front of her.

""You should calm down, and not cause a scene in your anger,"" he said in a deep voice. Revy raised her eyebrow and glared at him.

"Hey Jumbo, I don't know what you're saying, don't you speak English?" she snapped, invading Ginji's personal space and causing bystanders to watch the scene. "Can you even understand me you big idiot? Want me to kick your ass?"

"Honey..." Rock said pathetically.

""I refuse to fight a pregnant woman,"" Ginji rumbled. ""Please, calm down miss.""

Revy started to unbutton her jacket so she could access her Cutlasses. "I'll give you a few new holes you big stupid - hey!"

Ginji caught a glimmer of her pistols before Takato grabbed her and forced her to sit down. "Sit!" he hissed sharply as she made to get up again. She sat back down with a huff and in retribution, stole his noodles and slurped them down with a cheeky look on her face as she stuck her tongue out at him.

""I apologize Matsuzaki-san,"" Takato said, bowing to Ginji. ""She's actually normally like that, we hoped the pregnancy would calm her down but, well you know.""

Ginji nodded in acceptance. ""It's fine, nothing happened,"" he said back. He gestured to Yukio. ""Come Yukio, we should head back to our stand.""

Yukio nodded and began to skip back to their toy stand, and Ginji gave Takato one last look.

""It's been a while since anyone from your family has shown their faces in Japan,"" he said casually as Takato's hands reached around his back. He saw this. ""You have nothing to worry about, I won't say a word.""

With that, the large man walked off in the direction that Yukio had gone. Takato let out a sigh of relief and his fingers slipped from Ebony and Ivory's grips. Saito walked up behind him.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Takato answered. "Hey, _ne-san_ you bitch! You owe me another bowl of noodles!"

-----

"So, I finally get to meet the two deadliest gunmen of Roanapur," a greasy looking blonde Japanese-American leered as he eyed Revy up and glanced at Takato. "Hey, baby, how bout you and I go have some fun?"

"Hey, fuckface, I'm married," Revy muttered, nibbling on some Pocky as she leaned against the wall outside of the conference room Balalaika, Rock and the Washimine leader were in. "Are you into pregnant chicks? Cuz that's what I am you sick stupid idiot."

The man named Chaka turned away in disgust. "That's a shame, to this guy?" he asked, jerking his thumb to Takato.

Takato raised his eyebrow. "What, you into incest as well?" he asked. "She's like a sister to me."

Chaka laughed uproariously. "You don't mean to tell me it's that scrawny little fucker in there do you?!" he asked hysterically.

Revy's fist met his stomach as she effortlessly drove the wind from his lungs. "Hey, you wanna die dumbass?" she growled.

Chaka growled and drew his revolver, but two cold compensator tips pressed against his temple before his Colt reached up to Revy's stomach.

"You have a shit slow draw, _cowboy_," Takato said softly as Ebony and Ivory pressed against Chaka's head. "I could have put four bullets into your head in the time it took you to draw."

Chaka scowled at Takato, and was about to retort when the door to their left opened.

""CHAKA!"" Yoshida yelled. ""What the fuck are you doing you idiot?!""

""What?"" Chaka asked, looking back to Takato, who was suddenly against the wall a few feet away. He realized that his gun was still pointing at Revy's stomach.

"Tell your dog to get his gun away from my unborn child," Revy hissed. Rock, who had just come out, rushed to her side and translated. The Yakuza grew infuriated with Chaka for drawing on a pregnant woman and dragged him away. Balalaika raised an eyebrow at her.

"Something tells me that you two aren't totally innocent," she pondered.

Two innocent looks were all she recieved, and she laughed.

-----

_"Thanks for getting that stuff for me Rock," _Benny said over the phone. _"It's hard to get things that good through the Thai black market."_

"No problem Benny," Rock said into the payphone. "How are things over there?"

Benny laughed. _"Like how it usually is when Balalaika leaves town,"_ he answered. _"Gunshots every hour. Tell Tak that Cece misses him terribly. Well, she added some other things to that, but I was so disturbed that I can't bear to repeat them unless I want to get images in my head about her that Jane would kill me for."_

Rock chuckled and looked over to Takato, who was hanging out with him at the moment. Saito was currently guarding Balalaika and Revy was back at the hotel getting some rest since she was tired. "Cecilia misses you terribly," he told Takato who smiled at the thought of his lover.

"Tell Benny to tell her I think the same," he said.

"Takato says to tell Cecilia the same," Rock said.

_"Will do," _Benny replied. _"How's the incubator?"_

"She's back at the hotel resting," Rock said. "We had an tiring day, she shopped like a maniac."

_"Okay, well tell her that we miss her, and you guys," _Benny said. _"It's dead as hell around here, and when Balalaika leaves town, so do the jobs."_

"We miss you guys too, goodbye," Rock said, placing the reciever back. He turned around and someone bumped into him.

""Oh, I'm so sorry!""

""Yukio?"" Rock asked, helping the girl steady herself. ""That's okay.""

Takato snorted. ""You seem to have a chronic habit of bumping into people,"" he said insightfully with a grin.

""I guess I do,"" she laughed. She shivered as a gust of wind caught her school uniform skirt. ""Hey, do you two want to grab a drink?"" she asked. ""There's a nice juice shop nearby?""

Both men nodded. ""Sure,"" they replied.

-----

""I totally agree with you about the dice thing,"" Takato said as he polished his Bacardi off. Yukio nodded enthusiastically as she swirled her straw in her orange-fruit cocktail mix. Rock was drinking some gin and Sprite. ""But still, we are who we chose to be, if we wish for it hard enough.""

Yukio frowned. ""Do you really think so?"" she asked in honest curiousity.

Takato nodded with a harsh look on his face. ""I know so,"" he said quietly.

The three were quiet for a moment until Yukio's phone rang. She began to talk to Ginji when Rock got an alarmed look on his face when she mentioned her last name. Fortunetely, she didn't notice since she had turned around to talk on her phone (a polite thing to do in Japan) and Taka nudged the older Japanese man.

"So you realized it huh?" he asked in low English. Rock blinked.

"You knew?" he asked, shocked. "But - but Taka! Balalaika is planning to -!"

"I know that," Taka interrupted. "But I won't let anything happen to her."

"What?" Rock asked nervously as Yukio chatted away on her phone.

"I trust you with my life Rock," Taka muttered. "So I can freely tell you know. Yukio... she's my third cousin from my mother's side."

Rock looked confused. "But... that would mean..." he trailed off. His eyes widened.

Takato nodded solemnly. "Yes. Saito and I are ex-Yakuza, from the long-dead Sakamoto family."


	6. Yakuza war

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

_Yakuza war_

"Did you know that Takato and Saito were Yakuza?" Rock demanded as he and Revy sat in the back of their cab, on the way to the airport. Revy shrugged.

"Takato told me a few months ago," she said.

"And you didn't tell me?!" Rock asked.

She glared at him. "It wasn't my secret to tell," she snapped. "He trusts you, right? He wouldn't tell you something that huge if he didn't!"

Rock sagged back into his chair. "I - you're right," he sighed, placing his hand over his eyes. "I don't know why I'm suddenly making a big deal about this. Yakuza aren't that far off from what we do... And they're our close friends too. Argh, why did I get so worked up over this stupid thing?!"

Revy removed his hand from his eyes and turned his head so she could give him a kiss. "Because you wouldn't be my stupid, idiot Rock if you didn't care," she said, complimenting and insulting him at the same time. At least he got a kiss out of it.

"Takato knows as well as I do that Balalaika's going to kill Yukio," Rock sighed after a short moment. "He said he was going to stop it but... I can't sit here and do nothing."

"Yes you can, we're done here," Revy muttered, leaning back in her seat. "Forget about it Rock."

"I won't!" he said with conviction, startling his wife. "I can't stand by and do nothing when I know that I can help save her!"

Revy stared at him. "Fine, but if Balalaika tries to kill us, I've got my pregnancy excuse, what's yours?"

-----

_"You really want to piss of obasan **again**?" _Saito asked as Takato strolled to the Washimine estate, cellphone pressed to his ear. _"I mean seriously, **again**?!"_

"Hey, if I remember, we got away with anything when we were kids," Takato shot back as he stopped in front of the gates.

_"Well yeah, with stealing some chocolate from the pantry or something!"_ Saito rebuked. _"We're talking about getting in the way of obasan rising to power in Tokyo!"_

"Ah, don't get your knickers in a twist!" Takato laughed as he used his favorite saying from when they spent their time in England. He hopped over the gate after some effort. "Anyways, I'm there, talk to you later!"

_"Don't get killed!"_ Saito yelled before Taka hung up.

He entered the house intent on looking for Yukio or Ginji, but instead entered the main meeting room full of Chaka and his men. The Yakuza enforcer looked surprised to see Takato, as if he were expecting someone else. _Of course..._

"Not expecting me over Yukio, Chaka?" he asked, admiring some exquisite-looking katanas on the wall. He ignored the man drawing his revolver and picked up a beautiful gold scabbard katana, with black leather on the tang lined with gold stitches and pure rayskin wrapping underneath. It had been painted with real gold flakes and had very thick, shiny gloss coating the scabbard. On it were several beautiful engravings of birds, and it read _Golden Oriole_ in black kanji writing. As he was examining the sheathed sword, Chaka motioned for one of his enforcers to attack Taka from behind.

The man stepped up behind Taka and raised his bat, but Takato executed what he called "Vergil's Owning of Hell Vanguard from Devil May Cry 3" move. He quickly unsheathed the gleaming blade and swung the sword in his fingers expertly behind him, making it look as if the blade was seemingly passing through the man's body as if it wasn't real. A final stab to his stomach, and a fancy twirl later, Taka brought the sword up to a horizontal position above the scabbard which was held vertically in front of him, making a T. He pulled the sword's blade along the opening of the scabbard until the tip was at it and brought the sword to a vertical postition, sheathing it slowly. When he sheathed it all the way, the enforcer fell to the ground in pieces.

"Fuck!" Chaka yelled, training his Colt on Taka as he turned around, sheathed sword in his left hand. "Fuck off punk, our fight isn't with you!"

Suddenly, the door to the left slid open and Yukio and Yoshida walked in, surprised.

""Chaka, what are you doing here?"" Yoshida demanded, walking up to the man. He spotted the pieces of the man on the floor in front of Taka and his eyes bulged. ""What is going on here?!""

""Get her out of here!" Takato snapped, but Chaka turned and shot Yoshida in the stomach, making Yukio scream. Yoshida fell to the ground, clutching his wound and Chaka shot him in the head twice, killing him instantly. Yukio turned to run, but one of the enforcers punched her in the stomach, causing her to cry out in pain and fall against the wall. He hit her again in the face, breaking her glasses and making her nose bleed.

""You little bitch, don't run away!"" he yelled in anger, kicking her fetal form. A shot rang out and his head's contents splattered against the wall. Yukio looked up to see Taka with a long black gun raised, looking like Hell frozen over.

""Don't. Touch. Her,"" he said through gritted teeth. Chaka went to shoot him, but Taka shot his bullet out of the air.

""So, you really are an inhuman gunman,"" Chaka said with a smirk, moving closer to Yukio. Taka went to shoot, but Chaka dashed forward and pulled Yukio in front of him, placing his gun to her temple. ""Fuck off punk, or she dies.""

Several enforcers approached Taka with blunt weapons and a few swords, but he shot them without even looking, making their heads explode. The others wisely decided to stay away. ""Hurt her any more and I will paint the walls with your blood Chaka,"" Taka said calmly.

""What do _you_ care?" Chaka spat as he began to move away to the front door, Takato following him. ""She's just some Yakuza brat! She's not your family!""

""And so was I,"" Takato said silkily. ""And yes she is.""

""What?""

""You're looking at one of two of the last surviving members of the Sakamoto family!" Takato thundered, making Chaka blanch and Yukio gasp. ""Former leaders of the Yakuza and third cousin of Yukio Washimine through Miyuki 'Occoro' Sakamoto!""

""Impossible!"" Chaka roared as he bolted back, dragging Yukio by the hair as he escaped through the front door. Takato followed suit, but the other enforcers blocked his way, forcing him to shoot his way through and beat them with his sheathed sword. It was too late however, and screeching tires announced Chaka's escape and the remaining enforcers fled as well.

"FUCK!" Takato screamed, bursting out of the door, only to freeze as a katana blade met his throat.

""Sakamoto-san,"" Ginji said calmly as his 5 foot shirisaya hovered near Takato's throat. ""Where is Miss Yukio?!"

""I don't have any beef with you Matsuzaki!"" Takato bit out, moving to holster Ebony slowly. ""But if you don't get out of my fucking way, Chaka is either going to kill Yukio or hand her over to the Russians!""

""How do I know you didn't plan that all along?"" Ginji growled, his fingers tensing. Taka saw this and quickly threw his torso backwards, kicking Ginji's sword as he fell back, then fired Ebony repeated to the right, using the heavy recoil to send him rolling quickly to the lawn as Ginji steadied himself. He held the katana he "borrowed" from the Washimine estate in front of him diagionally and unsheathed it by pulling the scabbard all the way down. He held the sword in his right hand and the gold-flaked scabbard in his left and adopted a stance that Ginji wasn't familiar with.

Both men stared at eachother for a moment.

""Don't waste my time old man,"" Taka snarled viciously. Ginji struck.

His speed was incredible, but Taka raised his arm in a flash and deflected the older warrior's attack, and then spun the sword in his palm tightly, smacking Ginji's shirisaya away and went to thrust at Ginji in a stab. The man dodged the attack and parried Taka's sword away, knocking it to his side, and he raised his sword in what would be a powerful, but slow downward slash. Not fazed, Taka struck Ginji unexpectedly in the stomach with his scabbard, and then flicked his wrist to roll right, making the scabbard spin up 90 degrees and smack Ginji in the jaw, causing the man to stumble back.

Ginji glared at Takato as the younger man sheathed his sword slowly. Pressing forward, Ginji went to disembowel Takato by slashing at his stomach. Takato unsheathed his sword several inches down and to the right, blocking the attack and then used both arms to shove Ginji backwards, and unsheathed the sword all the way, in a quick-draw slash. It was a close hit, and left a cut in the man's jacket but didn't hit flesh. Ginji looked at his slashed jacket with grudging respect. He went to hold his sword in both hands when the front gate slammed open.

Both sword fighters looked to see a squad of 10 Visotoniki soldiers pour into the front lawn, AK-74SU's aimed at Ginji.

"Piss off you guys!" Taka snapped as he walked up to them. "If anyone's gonna kill him, it's me!"

"We have our orders Sakamoto-san," the leader snapped back in a Russian accent. "Get out of the way!"

"The hell I will!" Taka snarled, spinning to his left and using the flat side of his blade to smack the man's ankle, making him fly up into the air. Taka then hit the man in the chest with the pommel of his sword, sending him flying back into another soldier. Walking backwards quickly, Taka held his sword to his left side as he had sheathed it quickly. As the soldier collided with his comrade, Taka quick-drew in a flash, slicing both men in half, killing them instantly. The other soldiers went to open fire, but Taka cut them all down in a whirl of cold steel.

Stopping as the last man's torso slid from his waist, Taka spun the sword once quickly, removing the blood from the blade. He sheathed it traditionally and looked back at Ginji. ""They'll think it was you anyways, they know you're a swordsman,"" he told Ginji, holding the katana loosely in his hands.

""You'll pay for bringing Miss Yukio to harm!"" Ginji shouted.

""I swear on my beloved mother's grave that I was trying to save Yukio, not kill her,"" Taka said harshly. ""I _swear_! She's my fucking cousin!""

Ginji sheathed his sword. ""If you swear on Orroco Sakamoto's life, then I must believe you,"" he said solemnly. ""We should hurry, there's a place that Chaka might take them to...""

He trailed off as Rock and Revy ran into the yard, looking around wildly. "Are we too late?!" Rock asked in terror, seeing the bodies that littered the lawn and inside the house through the open door. Revy held both pistols in her hand and looked around with a dirty look on her face.

"Yes, that fucker Chaka took her!" Taka yelled, kicking one of the corpses. "Ginji says he knows where they're going, we have to hurry!"

"To the car!" Rock shouted, running out the gate again. They all followed him.

-----

""You think they're here?"" Rock asked Ginji as they pulled into the parking lot of a bowling alley called "Hirano Bowl".

""This is Chaka's main hangout,"" Ginji explained as they piled out of the car. ""I am certain he's got her here.""

""The man is fucking perverted,"" Takato growled, giving Rock his sword. ""If he so as much _touches_ her...!"

""He'll pray for death once I've started on him,"" Ginji growled with equal ferocity. ""Let's go. Rock, you take the back entrance. If you find Yukio, take her somewhere safe.""

""Yeah,"" Rock said nervously, clutching the ornate sword tightly in his hands. ""Be careful you guys, be careful Revy," he finished in English.

She flashed him a wink as she held Sword Cutlasses up. "Love you," she said, before walking to the front door. Takato drew Ebony and Ivory and Ginji gave him a look.

"You played it too, huh?" he smirked. They entered the lobby.

Three enforcers were guarding the entrance to the alley, and a single employee was minding the counter. Revy grinned sadistically and raised her M92FS's and opened fire. She shot the employee in the face and dropped two enforcers while Taka removed the last one's head from his shoulders. They both looked at eachother.

"Play the game?" Revy asked.

"So far you're at 3 points, and I have 4," Taka agreed.

The "game" was a somewhat twisted killing spree game they had come up with. Whenever they were on a mission, they would run up a body count of how many enemies they killed. Once they got back, both would compare their totals. Whoever had the higher body count "won" and recieved a point.

Ginji slammed the doors open and they burst inside to see Chaka and the rest of his goons. Chaka leapt up from his seat and pulled a half-naked Yukio in front of him, his Colt to her temple.

""Well, took you long enough _Hitokiri Ginji_,"" he sneered. ""And you've brought the gunmen too!""

Takato looked at Ginji. "'Manslayer' Ginji?"" he asked. Ginji ignored him and bristled furiously at Chaka.

""So you've already done it,"" he snarled venomously, looking at the tearful Yukio as she clutched her jacket to her naked torso. She was only wearing that and her panties, they had degraded her so far. ""You'll suffer for this Chaka, I swear it.""

""You'll be dead by the end of the night,"" Chaka laughed as he dragged Yukio to the back exit. ""It's a shame, I really wanted to see the Manslayer in action. Guys, take care of these punks for me!""

Takato opened fire as Revy cackled evily, throwing herself around a pillar and killing four guys in a row. Ginji unsheathed his shirisaya and cut down a group of enforcers with bats and knives. Takato entertained himself by flipping around acrobatically and scoring headshot after headshot. The battle was ridiculously one-sided, and the three headed over to the exit in pursuit of Chaka.

-----

Revy walked down the basement hallway alone as she looked around for the smug blond bastard. She caught sight of him near some vending machines, clutching his shoulder as blood seeped out of it.

"So, you're not so hot now are you fuckface?" Revy asked casually as Chaka turned around, pointing his gun at her. "What happened to you?"

"Your fucking husband slashed my shoulder with a fucking sword you bitch!" Chaka yelled. "I'll fucking kill you for that!"

Revy snorted. "Sure you will," she said dismissively. Chaka reached over to the garbage can and picked up a can. "Tell you what," he sneered, "How about we draw guns? Once this can falls to the ground after I drop it, how bout a proper duel?"

Revy's answer was driving her fist into his face, breaking his nose. He yelped and fell back on his ass, blood pouring from his crushed nose. "Please, as if I'd waste any of my bullets on you," Revy sniffed, turning around and walking through a door that led to the underground pool.

"You slut! Don't you walk away from me!" Chaka yelled, getting up and bursting through the door. He stopped in his tracks as he saw Ginji with his sword standing a little distance away. The door slammed behind him and he turned to see Revy lock it.

"Let's see you have a proper duel with Jumbo over there," she smirked, pointing her Cutlasses at him and forcing him to turn around. He sneered arrogantly at Ginji.

""You're an idiot Ginji, bringing a knife to a gunfight," he said, raising his gun and firing. Ginji was a blur of motion, and all Revy could make out was a flash of silver, and then the sound of two bullet halves hitting the floor.

"Whoa, someone's got skills!" she said in awe of Ginji's swordsmanship. Chaka pulled the trigger again but Ginji was too fast yet once more, and he streaked towards the blond man and cleaved his hands from his arms.

Chaka screamed in pain, and Ginji kicked him into the pool.

The water surrounding Chaka reddened, and he screamed in agony as the chlorine in the water stung his bleeding stumps harshly. Ginji ignored the foolish man's threats and pressed his sheathed sword on the man's head, pushing him underwater and drowning the man named Chaka.

-----

The door to the locker room opened, and Rock instinctually slashed downwards with the sword. A loud clang echoed in the room and he cracked his closed eyes open to see the blade stopped by a black and white pair of guns held in an X.

"Not bad Rock," Takato said as he forced the blade off his guns. Seeing no marks on their perfect finish, he flashed Rock a grin. "Got some power to that swing."

Rock shrugged and awkwardly sheathed the katana back into its sparkling gold scabbard. "It couldn't be any more different than swinging a stick," he said as they walked over to Yukio, who was sitting on a chair.

""Are you okay cousin?"" Takato asked. She nodded.

""I guess. I can't avoid it anymore, can I?"" she asked Takato, who raised an eyebrow. ""I have to take the head of the Washimine Group, and -""

""_Hai-iiya,""_ Takato shook his head. ""Ye-no,"" he repeated. ""You will do no such thing!""

Yukio pushed him away from her angrily. ""If I don't then the Washimine will be lost!"" she yelled. ""I must take the head and prevent the Russians from taking over!""

Takato grabbed her by the shoulders. ""_They already have_,"" he hissed. ""It's too late. by tomorrow morning the Yakuza underground and Kousa Council will cease to exist!""

Yukio looked shocked. ""What? No..." she trailed off softly. ""I don't believe it...""

""You're a corpse if you stay in Japan,"" Takato warned. She glared at him.

""What, and run away like a coward?"" she fumed. ""Like you?""

She was slammed against the wall as Takato gripped her by the neck.

""I. Am NOT. A coward,"" he hissed into her ear. ""Our mother's dying wish was for us to escape this meaningless life of Yakuza. The life of a Yakuza ends in early death girl. It's law. If I have to drag you out, kicking and screaming to save your life I will cousin, because you are my _only_ family left in the world!""

He released Yukio to Rock's relief and the girl sank back into her chair. She began to cry softly. ""But the Russians won't stop until they kill me,"" she sobbed.

Takato shook his head and squat down in front of her, wiping her tears and rubbing the slight bruising he caused on her neck. ""No cousin, she will spare your life if I ask her to,"" he whispered.

She sniffled and looked at him. ""How can you be so sure?"" she accused.

""Because I've done it before,"" he whispered. ""To save the life of the girl I love. You are family, it's no more different than before.""

""Do you swear?"" Yukio cried, flinging her arms around his neck and he brought her into a sibling-like hug of comfort.

""I swear on my beloved mother - your mother's sister's sister-in-law's grave,"" he swore.

Yukio took a deep breath. ""Okay,"" she said, and Rock collapsed on the floor in relief.

-----

"You always were the troublesome one," Balalaika sighed as Takato stood before he stiffly. "Why, Taka-sama?"

"She's my last link to my mother," Takato said gruffly. "She looks like mother and you know it."

Balalaika rubbed the bridge of her nose warily. "You know you are lucky, fucking lucky that I ended the war with Washimine last night," she grated, glaring at him. "Third strike and you're in trouble young man. You owe me another big favor, no matter how dangerous it could be."

She glared at him one more time as Saito shifted nervously beside Boris. Balalaika suddenly smiled. "Now give your auntie a hug, I haven't seen you for a day!" she exclaimed, making both older men breath out in relief.

-----

""So... this is Roanapur,"" Yukio said in wonder as they exited the Miyuki. ""It's... interesting.""

""You'll need to learn English quickly, both of you,"" Rock said cheerfully. ""I can teach you if you'd like. I am a translator after all.""

""Thank you very much,"" Ginji said, coming up to the deck to stand beside Yukio. ""So this is our new home.""

""Ah, it's not so bad once you get used to the smell,"" Saito said as he and his brother came up. ""You can either take rooms in the yacht, or we can set you up in an apartment somewhere?""

Ginji loooked at Yukio, who threaded her fingers through his. ""An apartment, if it doesn't bother you,"" he asked respectfully. Saito grinned.

""Good, there's enough moaning from sex on this floating can already,"" he stated, making Yukio flush furiously and Ginji twitch. ""We'll set you up in one of my nicer hotels tonight.""

""Thank you,"" Yukio said as they entered the dock. ""Let's go look around Ginji!""

""Yes Miss Yukio,"" Ginji said with a rare smile as they began to walk away.

""Ooi, old man!""

He turned around just in time to catch the light beige shirisaya that flew from the air. Takato grinned at him from the other side of the dock, holding his golden oriole katana in his left hand.

""We still need to finish our duel!""

* * *

Just so you know, "Ooi" sounds like, "Oy, oy!" 


	7. Balalaika's Ascent

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

_Balalaika's Ascent_

Once again, life back at Roanapur had settled back to normalcy once Balalaika came back. Any warring faction between the citizens was quickly put to a stop and she reassumed her complete power over the city. Tokyo was all but hers now, having destroyed not only the Yakuza, but the Kousa Council as well. The Russians now owned underground Tokyo.

Yukio and Ginji had settled in nicely at their hotel in the hectic city. As promised, Saito gave them the penthouse in his best hotel that he owned. They were still currently looking for some way to get a job, but in the meanwhile, Rock would teach them english. They had progressed from knowing absolutely nothing at all to the more common "Engrish" that most Roanapurians spoke. They had begged off from Saito's generosity after a few weeks and decided to help Black Lagoon out every once in a while, in order to make a little money. Yukio was a whiz with accounting, so she handled their finances and Ginji would provide muscle on some missions. Still, they wanted to seek their own employment in the world eventually.

Saito had broken off his on/off relationship with Shenhua, since the woman was going back to China to work for the Triad there. He had stuck up a new relationship with Eda, surprisingly, and the two hit it off quite well. He used most of the money he made from Tokyo and Balalaika to buy himself a nice house by the sea side, and Eda moved in with him. He would still frequent the Miyuki and sleep there was well, but two couples sleeping around on one boat was a little uncomfortable.

Takato and Cecilia still lived on the Miyuki, and were quite happy about it. She had recently had her birthday, and was now 17 while Taka was still 20 for a few months. She was quite vibrant, and had bought Saito's sushi shop off of him and was making a good profit every month. The food there was very good, serving things other than raw fish, but everyone suspected that the many men who frequented the restaraunt came not only for the food, but to ogle the gorgeous seductress who owned the place. Fortunetely, no word of this reached Takato's ears, and the men were more than intelligent enough not to start things with one of the former "Vampire Twins".

Revy was over 5 months pregnant now, and was sitting out on missions at the office, or sometimes at Taka's place. She was bloated, hormonal and most times hysterical as she went through her first pregnancy, and Rock had decided to lock her Cutlasses away for her own safety. Rock was currently on a delivery with Dutch, Benny and Ginji, and wouldn't be back for a few days, so Mrs. Okajima had rounded up Cecilia, Eda and Yukio for a girls' night in on the yacht. Takato had been kicked out earlier, and was cruising around on his bike at 10PMish. The girls needn't have removed him, he would have gladly left on his own volition once the satellite pay-per-view porn came on, which everyone but Yukio whooped at. The 18 year old former Yakuza head was still curious however, as any unexperienced girl was.

Life for Takato was breezing by easily. Their rent of $208,000 a month (the majority coming from Saito's business rents) was easily paid for by Takato's jobs, and Saito's businesses. They always had a nice amount of money for spending and supplies, and jobs were plentiful. Cecilia had been given a new SUV for her birthday - a nice black BMW - by Takato so she could make her way to work safely (big SUV plus brush guards and 300HP equals people mover).

Takato had been on several jobs for Balalaika of course, and his body count continued to rise while Revy's stayed at 1,296 because of her inactiveness. He was currently at 1,147 and hoped to beat hers soon. He would occassionally invite his pseudo-aunt over for dinner and just to spend time with the only mother-figure that he could think of and she of course, happily obliged her little prince.

-----

Taka pressed the answer button on his headset as he pulled up to a red light. "Sakamoto here," he said.

_"Hi Taka-sama,"_ Balalaika greeted.

"_Obasan!_ What's up?" he greeted cheerfully.

_"Are you interested in making a lot of money?" _she asked.

Takato put the CBR into gear as the light turned green. "How much is 'a lot'?" he asked, cruising the streets and heading uptown to Hotel Moscow.

_"500,000," _was her response.

"Serious," Takato asked, raising his eyebrow. "You must really hate someone if it's that much."

_"Naturally,"_ she responded. _" It's Laptev."_

"Eh?" Takato asked. "That former Russian mobster from Tokyo?"

_"Yes, he's hidden himself there somewhere and refuses to lie down and die,"_ Balalaika muttered. _"Even the Visotoniki can't find him."_

"Yeah, sure I'll go," Taka said with a grin. "When do you want me to leave?"

_"Tomorrow morning if that's okay with you,"_ she answered. _"Come by the Hotel ASAP so I can brief you."_

"I'm 5 minutes away," Taka smiled. "See you soon, _obasan_."

_"You too, my little prince."_

-----

"Hey, what are you doing back so soon?" Revy grumbled as Taka passed through the living room, ignoring the flat screen and the loud moans that emitted from its speakers. "It's girls' night in!"

"Sorry, got a job from Miss Balalaika," Taka apologized, reaching over to the nearby mini fridge and withdrawing a Sprite. "One that I can't pass up."

"Oh?" Revy asked eagerly. Since she couldn't go on jobs, she loved to hear about them. "What's up little bro?"

"I'm heading back to Tokyo," he announced, drawing some curious looks. "Turns out that Balalaika wants me to take care of Vasili Laptev. For half a million."

"WHOA! She must really hate him!" Revy said, her eyes wide at the sound of so much money. "Wow, half a million..."

"When are you r'eaving?" Yukio asked in her Engrish. He looked over to her. She still had red tinted cheeks from her night's "entertainment".

"Tomorrow morning," he answered. "What's up cousin?"

"Can I come?"

"No," Taka half stated, half asked as he looked at her in disbelief. "I wouldn't head back to Tokyo if I were you Yukio."

"But, can't I go?" she pleaded. "I won't do anything stupid! I just want to visit!"

Taka sighed. "Let me think about it... no," he answered. "It's still too soon for you to go back. Hell, it took me and Saito 10 years to go back there! Besides, I'm on an assassination job, what are you going to do in the meantime, play some Dance Dance Revolution?"

She scowled. "I hate being use'r'ess," she muttered.

Taka ruffled her hair, making her pout. "You haven't found your true calling yet," he said with a chuckle. "Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on keeping Ginji and yourself happy, yeah?"

She finally smiled back at him. "_Hai_, cousin."

-----

"Eh, this place never changes," Takato said wistfully as he walked the streets of Tokyo, Ebony and Ivory under his full length suit jacket. He was wandering around aimlessly for a bit, having discarded his rental car a while ago in the parking lot. He wandered down to a nearby cherry tree park and sat down at one of the benches, admiring the winter bloom.

"Ah, I love cherry trees," a man said, sitting down next to Takato. He had a goatee and brown hair, and was definitely one of Balalaika's. "Their beauty never ceases to amaze, even an old dog like me."

"Hello Vladimir," Taka greeted with an inclination of his head. The man nodded back. "What's up?"

"The Visotoniki did a more thorough search, even used outside agents," Vlad explained. "We got lucky, or Vasili got sloppy. A record of a passport picture taken two months ago, with his ugly face on it."

Taka chuckled. "Is that so?" he asked. "Vasili must be getting old."

"Heh. We did a search for the passport the picture was pasted onto and found out that he's escaped Tokyo."

"Back to Moscow?"

"No, further West."

"Ah," Taka nodded. "America."

"No, too easy," Vlad corrected. "He's in Canada."

"Canada?" Takato raised his eyebrow. "Well that does make sense, it's a festering cesspool for terrorists."

Vladmir guffawed. "Those Canucks are too trusting, yes," he agreed. "We've got a private charter flight booked for you already. But you'll have to go alone."

"Fine with me," Taka said with a wink. "You guys would just get in my way."

Vlad laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Knowing us old dogs, most likely!" he chuckled. "You should take a taxi to the airport, your flight leaves in 2 hours. Don't worry about security checks, we've taken care of everything, even got your luggage from the hotel."

Taka stood up and shook the man's hand. "If the soldier job doesn't work out for you, I could always use some butlers," he joked.

-----

"So, where do you think he is?" Takato asked to the laptop in front of him. It showed a webcam of Vladimir, and his own camera showed the Russian his face. He was currently seated on the couch in the Lear jet, on his way to Canada.

"We know he landed at Pearson airport in Toronto, Ontario," Vlad said. "And then used a fake credit card to take a bus out of the city. The only problem is that the bus makes three stops."

"Locations?"

"First a city named Guelph. Then, Kitchener and finally Cambridge," Vlad read from a paper he had printed out. "Cambridge is the last stop before the bus heads back to Toronto."

"Alright, I'll just search each town," Taka mused. "Hopefully it won't take too long."

"He's probably in a smaller town so he can hide easier," Vlad added. "But that could be negative as well, since the smaller the town, the more everyone knows eachother."

"Alright, so where will I be staying?" Takato asked.

"Cambridge, it's the smallest, cheapest and cleanest town there," Vlad answered. "We've booked you into a decent hotel, the Holiday Inn which is near one of two main streets in the city. We've also leased you a nice new Subaru for winter driving."

"Nice, how?"

"We used our business account, don't worry about it, the Kapitan cleared it with us beforehand," Vlad said with a smile. "Anything for 'her little prince'."

Taka chuckled exasperatedly. "Yeah..." he said sheepishly."Anyways... I should be getting some rest for up ahead."

"Roger that," Vlad said, saluting the younger man. "Happy hunting."

"Goodnight, corporal."

-----

"Vlad, Guelph is a negative," Taka said into the microphone of the visor in his car. His cellphone was in his pocket, and the car had a built in Bluetooth headset, which used the speakers of the stereo for hearing his phone, and a microphone to speak into. The steering wheel had phone controls. Taka was currently driving down Water Street in the Canadian city Cambridge, in his sleek new 2007 Subaru WRX STI compact. The car was pearl white, for Taka would drive nothing else and blended in nicely with the large amounts of snow that covered the streets. The 300HP/300TQ turbocharged engine gave him good power and the 4WD system gave him crisp control as he slightly drifted a light turn.

_"Okay, we'll make note of it,"_ Vlad answered. _"Remember, try not to start too much trouble. We have no control of what happens in the West, and we heard that area is mostly filled with wannabe Vietnamese gangsters."_

"Viets?!" Taka moaned. "Those guys are such irritants!"

Vlad laughed. _"Yes, apparently if you can sell a pound of marijuana you're a gangster!"_ he retorted. _"Where are you now?"_

"I just left the hotel in Cambridge," Takato replied.

_"Is it to your liking?"_ Vlad asked.

"Despite what _obasan _says, I don't act like a little prince," Takato laughed, coming to a stop near a crazy looking intersection, with at least 8 roads coming together. "It's more than enough accomodation for me, thank you Vlad."

_"You're one of us," _Vlad replied. _"What about Cambridge?"_

"Nothing here either, which leaves Kitchener," Takato said eagerly. The light ahead of him turned green, and he put the STI into gear and zipped away. "I'll call you back when I find something out, yeah?"

_"Roger that Sakamoto-san, till then."_

As he drove along, Taka noticed a beautiful stone castle coming up on his right side. Unable to resist, he turned into the road beside it and parked his car by the curb. It looked like a castle, but scores of teenagers were coming out of its doors, equipped with books and backpacks.

_So it's a school,_ he mused.

"Excuse me, are you visiting?"

Takato looked over to see a waif of a young girl, probably a sophomore standing in the snow near him. She was cute girl with deep chocolate colored hair that was tightly curled and hung to her shoulders. She was carrying a bookbag and looked as if the wind would blow her away any second now.

"I was just admiring this wonderful architecture," he answered, waving his hand to the castle. "This is a school?"

The girl smiled. "Oh yes, Galt Collegiate Instutute and Vocational School," she recited. "It's over 150 years old."

Takato shook his head. "Beautiful," he said. "What's your name, young woman?"

"Oh, I'm Alicia Miller," she said shyly.

"Sakamoto Takato," Takato answered with a small bow. "You can call me Taka."

"Hey man, is this your ride?"

Takato turned around to see a group of "thugged out" teenage males loitering around his STI. One was sitting on the hood, and another was checking out the gold Prodrive wheels.

"I suggest you get off my car," Takato called over to them, before turning back to Alicia.

"And if we don't?" one of them taunted, drawing a crowd.

A gust of wind kicked up Taka's jacket tails, clearly showing off Ebony and Ivory holstered on his back.

"And if you don't?" Takato repeated with humor. The teens slid off his car nervously.

"Ah, it's not that great anyways," the "leader" said, his group following him up in front of Takato and beside Alicia. "I've seen better."

"Do you own better?" Takato asked with an eyebrow raised. When he recieved no answer, he sniffed. "Thought not. It's a rental."

"If you can afford it, why not rent a Ferrari or something?" another kid asked snidely.

Takato kept his eyebrow raised as he turned his gaze onto the Asian kid. "Because then I'd have to attach a bloody snow plow to the front to make it out the driveway," he asked. "Miss Miller, I would like to know more about this architecture, would you like to join me, or perhaps take me on a tour?"

The young girl smiled and went to answer, but the leader - a muscled white boy who looked to be 18 or 19) shoved her into the snow. Taka's left eye twitched.

"No one likes this bitch," the leader laughed. "She's a fucking loner, and a brown nose. Can't make any friends at all!"

Takato walked up briskly and helped the poor girl up to her feet. Once he made sure she was ok, he snapped his right leg out, and sent the boy flying backwards. His little gang bristled, but Takato calmly drew Ebony and twirled it, moving its tip across the group. "Back. Off," he grit.

Fortunately, most of the students had taken their cars or the bus home, and only a small crowd of 20 or so were left. Takato walked through the crowd and drew Ivory, spinning his guns in his index fingers for a bit before squatting down in front of the leader, hands/guns on his knees. "Now why would you pick on a small girl like that?" he asked curiously, nudging the terrified boy with Ivory. "It's very rude to knock a girl down like that. If we were back in my home country I would have taken one of your fingers."

"Hey man," the boy tried to apologize, but Taka pressed Ebony's tip onto the boy's chin, shutting his mouth.

"You will address me as 'sir', like any polite and respectful young man would," Takato said softly, silkily. "Now, school is out. Why don't you and your friends go home and study your books, yes?"

The boy scrambled back onto his feet and bolted away, many of the crowd following him. Taka holstered his guns and walked back to Alicia, who had picked up her fallen books.

"Th-thanks," she stammered, eyeing him. "You're not like, a mass-murderer are you?"

Taka thought back to his kill count. "No, just a simple merc," he fibbed. She accepted his lie, though warily.

"How about that tour?" she finally asked.

-----

It had been a few days after visiting the high school. Taka had found a few leads on Laptev in Kitchener, but hadn't found the man yet. He was careful to keep his tracks covered, just in case the Russian caught wind of someone tailing him. It wouldn't do to get caught and lose the man when he was so close.

He had struck up a nice friendship with the waifly girl named Alica Miller, and on his spare time would take her out to lunch during her school lunch break. Being a loner, the girl appreciated the company and looked up to Taka with a sort of sisterly-hero-worship. She had adamantly refused any offers from him to drive her home however, preferring to walk and he always thought that that was strange, but he didn't pry into her business.

He had recieved several calls from back home, and chatted with his friends as he was updated on the daily happenings of Roanapur. Dutch and the others had arrived home two days ago, with some good cash from their latest delivery to Cambodia. Revy was overbearingly pregnant as usual, and wanted nothing more than to pop her kid out and either get back to work or take care of it. Everyone hoped it would be the latter. Rock was fine, Cecilia was fine, Yukio and Ginji had gotten jobs as managers for the hotel they lived in, and Benny and Jane were going to tie the knot soon, so he'd better hurry up and get home. Saito and Eda were progressing nicely, and the fact that she was a nun didn't stop her from taking in unwholesome nightly activities with his brother. Well, being a nun probably explained it all, actually.

Spending time in Cambridge was depressingly boring, with a sub-par shopping mall, no interesting attractions other than the theatre and no illegal activity whatsoever. Selling drugs barely counted as illegal to most Roanapur citizens. Takato spent most of his days either hunting for Laptev's blood or playing video games or movies. He usually spent his lunches with Alicia, and enjoyed the hour spent with the 14 year old he had become fond of. She was a very bright child, and would entertain him with stories of the history of GCI and Canada. Some days, however, he would notice dark bags under her eyes that were hastily hidden with makeup, and sometimes she would wince when he would put a hand to her back. It was a mystery that he wanted to solve, quickly.

-----

"Miss Alicia, it's a snowstorm outside!" Takato warned as he shielded his face with his arm as wind and sleet bit into his skin. "You seriously cannot be thinking about walking home in this weather! You live downtown!"

"I'll be fine!" the young girl cried over the wind. "Honest!"

"I refuse to let you go into this weather in my good conscience!" he countered. "Get in the car, and no buts!"

She tried to refuse again, but Takato grabbed her arm and shoved her into the passenger's seat of his STI. She pouted fantastically, but he shut the door and made his way to the driver's side, getting in as well. Fortunately, he had left the car on, so it was warm inside. The wipers moved furiously against the front window, quickly removing the snow that piled mercilessly onto it.

_"... winds are over 60kmp/h and we've got heavy snow coming in within the hour," _the radio droned. _"The weather committee is urging everyone to stay indoors and to not, I repeat, not go outside in this weather! It looks like we'll be seeing a blizzard of massive porportions tonight folks!"_

"See?" Takato asked smugly.

Alicia scowled. "Fine!" she said. "I guess you're right."

"Now, where do you live?" he asked, pulling out of the school's front lot and turning right, heading towards the downtown.

"In lower Galt, near the boonies," she muttered, leaning back in her seat. She looked embarrassed. Of course she would be, here she was sitting in an expensive car, talking about her home, which was in the poor area of town.

"Got it," Takato said. Alicia let out a scared squeak as he took the downhill turn too fast, and drifted the entire way, doing about 70kmp/h on half a foot of snow easily. "What, don't worry about, I'm a very safe driver."

The angry honks from other drivers thought otherwise. Takato ignored them and continued on his way.

"Take a right here," Alicia said after a moment, and he followed her instructions, as she guided him deeper into the downtown area. They finally stopped in what looked like a townhouse sector, with shoddy homes and barely any cars parked in the parking lot. Alicia had a very embarrassed look on her face as Takato stopped i n front of #111, which looked dingier than the rest.

"Thanks a lot Mr. Taka," she said quietly, opening the door. Takato exited the vehicle as well and watched her walk to her front door, unlocking it with the key.

"Well, I'll see you next Monday then," she said a little more cheerfully, since it was Friday. "That is, if the blizzard doesn't kill us."

Taka smiled. "Ah, see you later," he called as she entered her home. "_Imouto-chan_," he whispered.

-----

"How'd you get home so fasssssht?" Alicia stiffened as her father entered the hallway, glaring at her with glazed eyes. He was drunk, and holding a large bottle of Smirnoff in his hands. "It usshualllly takes you half an hourr to get home."

"I - I got a ride from a friend," she stammered, wrapping her arms around her body as she shivered as her father stepped up to her.

"You don't have any _friends_!" he barked, using his free hand to give her a right hook to the temple. She cried out in pain, the tears flowing already as she hit the way, causing a framed photograph of her dead mother to fall on the floor. She sobbed as she clutched the frame to her chest.

Her mother had died when Alicia was 7 years old from a brain tumor. Since then, her father had become a complete wreck, losing his job at the factory he worked at and turning into a destitute drunk. He spent their welfare cheques on alcohol, and all of Alicia's school things were barely paid for by the caring teachers at school. Her father stayed home all day, only going out to either buy more booze or gamble, which he always lost at. When Alicia would come home, he would beat her in a drunken rage, but she always managed to escape outside to the library when he got too sexually abusive. It was mainly the reason why she was an outcast at school, despite her sweet disposition and top notch grades.

"YOU DON'T TOUCH THAT PICTURE!" her father roared, raising the vodka bottle over his head to smash into hers. Suddenly, the front window shattered, and the bottle exploded into a million pieces as a hole appeared in the wall behind it.

-----

A figure in white stood outside of the Miller home, twin pistols in hand.


	8. Stray

Short chapter, more of an interlude to future ones I suppose

Chapter rating: M, with light abuse mention

* * *

_Stray_

Alicia's father stared stupidly at the neck of the bottle held in his hand, all that was left of it. He blinked drunkenly as the front door had many holes blown into the frame, before it exploded inwards, showering the hall with fragments of wood. Snow and sleet blew into the room harshly, nearly camoflauging the figure that stood in the doorway.

"Mr. Miller, we meet at last," Takato greeted coldly as he stepped into the house, Ebony and Ivory at his sides. The drunken slub threw the piece of glass in his hands at Takato, but it was easily shot out of the air.

Takato looked down at Alicia, who was crying as she hugged a portrait of a woman to her chest. "Alicia, everything will be okay now," he said soothingly. He gave her father a hard look. "So, this explains everything."

"Who're you?" Alicia's father demanded angrily. "Get outta my housh!"

"I especially hate child abuse," Takato went on, ignoring the man. "My girlfriend was a victim of it. My cousin was a victim of it. Your own daughter is a victim of it."

He stepped up to Alicia, and stood in front of her protectively. "Did he...?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Never got close enough to," she whispered. He nodded thankfully.

"You should apologize for your pervertedness," Takato said coldly. "Kneel down to me."

"Fuck you!" the man yelled.

Takato narrowed his eyes. "_Kneel_."

"I ain't -"

BLAM BLAM!

He fell to his knees, screaming in pain as Takato shattered his kneecaps. Alicia whimpered behind him, but made no movement to help her father at all. Takato walked up to the man and trained his guns on his face.

"I'll see you in Hell in 50-60 years," he said softly, blowing a hole in each eye as blood erupted from the back of his skull, showering the walls with blood and gore.

Takato holstered E&I and turned back to Alicia, who had shakily gotten to her feet. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly, steadying her by holding onto her arm.

"He's dead," she whispered, staring at the body of her father with morbid fascination. "He's finally dead..."

Takato nodded. "Yeah... sorry, couldn't help myself."

He looked out the front hole that used to be the door. "The wind is loud, but the neighbors will have heard the gunshots," he said. "Do you have anywhere I can take you?"

She shook her head.

"Fine, pack whatever you can, I'll just take you with me."

-----

_"Sakamoto-san, what's up?"_ Vlad asked as Taka drove quickly, his white car only noticable because of the Xenon headlights that poured out in front of it.

"When I'm done here, I'll need a fake passport and second plane ticket," Takato said hurriedly, nosing his car around two SUVs and drifting past them in the intense snowstorm.

_"Oh?"_

"Picked up a stray," Takato explained, smiling at Alicia, who gave him a small smile back from the passenger's side. The trunk and backseat were filled with her clothes, schoolbooks and knick knacks.

_"Well sure, no problem,"_ Vlad replied, amused. _"Who'd you rescue this time?"_

Takato rolled his eyes, and he was pretty sure Vlad knew he did. "The usual, I suppose," he said. He turned to Alicia. "Pick a new last name."

"What?" she asked, but thought for a moment. "Uh, how about 'Peche'? It was my mom's maiden name, everyone would call her 'their little Peach'..."

Takato smiled. "Hear that Vlad?" he asked. "Passport for one Alicia Peche, I'll send a photo of her once I get back to the hotel."

_"Roger, I'll airmail it once its finished, with all the papers," _Vlad replied. _"Does the Kapitan need to know?"_

"She'd probably like to," Takato said. "And for once I'm not going behind her back this time, so it should be fine."

_"Okay then, Vlad out."_

"Taka? What's going on?" Alicia asked as he hung up. "Why do I need a fake passport? Who are you really?"

Takato glanced at her as they travelled up Hespeler Road, the hotel barely visible up ahead. "I'm currently Asia's top assassin, working for the most powerful woman in Asia," he stated in a blunt tone. "I came here on a job to eliminate a former Russian mafia leader and I ran into you one day. You're getting a fake passport cuz I'm taking you away from this dump. Does that explain everything?"

The thin girl was quiet for a while as she contemplated what he said. Taka pulled into the hotel parking garage and shut off the car.

"Where am I moving to?" she finally asked, having accepted the situation. Going anywhere with Takato was better than staying here, where she would most likely end up going to jail for accessory to murder.

"Roanapur, Thailand," Takato answered. "It's a real nice place, you'd like it."

"I've never been out of Canada before!" she said excitedly as the lugged the suitcases out of the car. A bellboy came up with a luggage cart and piled them on. Taka nodded thanks and gave the teenager a 50. "Or a plane! Are we taking a plane???"

Takato laughed at her eagerness. "Yeah, private jet," he told her as they entered the elevator. It took them to the top floor, where his penthouse was. He opened the door with his key and led the young girl in.

"You'll stay her for a bit while I clear things up hopefully," he said, showing her to the second master bedroom. "Your stuff should be up in a few minutes, answer the door when it rings, kay?"

She nodded as she bounced on the big bed and Takato went into his own room, where his laptop sat on the desk. He opened it up and and contacted Benny on MSN.

_Ran into some trouble, could u do me a favor?_ he typed. He waited for a response.

_Sure, what's up?_

_Got a lil crazy, killed some lowlife who beat his daughter, a friend of mine. Mind hacking into the city's police reports?_

_I'm on it. what should I look for?_

_Any reports of disturbance or murder in Galt. I want u to change everything so that it looks like the man was killed by gangsters because he couldn't pay up for losing money in gambling._

_What about the paper reports???_

_They can be... misplaced... (evily smiley)_

_Lol. Okay, everything's finished. There was just one report, and it was just a phone call. Lucky for you, they also said it was a gang related killing, seems your man was well-known about it. I've fragmented the part where the caller said they saw a white sports car outside, but that'll only hold up until the cops realize it's been tampered with and contact the witness._

_We'll be long gone, don't worry. Thanx a lot Benny-Boy, I'll wire u some cash later._

_Don't worry about, just owe me a favor when you get back._

_Ttyl._

_Later._

-----

A man with short brown hair shivered as he sipped his coffee as he walked away from Tim Horton's. This country was so shitty, but at least their jo was tasty. Vasili Laptev hated having to run away from Tokyo, but it would only be a matter of time until that fry-faced bitch Balalaika would kill him. Canada was the last place that the woman would look, and he would be safer in the small town of Kitchener. He glanced at his watch. It was nearing 10 o' clock, the show "24" would be on soon. He picked up the pace.

Turning into an alleyway, Vasili headed towards the back entrance of his apartment, a non-descript place that wasn't luxurious, but it didn't draw any attention from good or bad, so it was perfect for him. Heading up the stairs to the third floor, he unlocked his apartment door and walked inside, sighing at the warmth from the heated room. Even Moscow wasn't as cold as Canada's weather. He set his cup of coffee onto the table and tossed his jacket on the coat hanger before reclaiming his coffee and entering the dark living room.

Not bothering to turn the lights on, Vasili plopped onto his couch and flicked his 32" LCD TV on, changing to the Global TV channel. His show had finally started, and he eagerly watched to see what Jack Bauer would do tonight.

"Good show, that is," a voice said softly from behind him. Vasili froze in his seat. He slowly slid his hand to his belt, where a Tokarev was hidden in his waist line.

"So, you've found me," he stated. "Fry-Face wanted me dead that bad?"

He drew his pistol and racked the slide back to cock it, but a hailstorm of bullets tore into his couch, ripping through and killing him instantly. Vasili Laptev died facing his television set, the last image he ever saw being his beloved Jack Bauer.

-----

Takato emerged from the shadows at the back of the room, Ebony and Ivory smoking slightly. He twirled them a few times, not only for show, but to cool down the heated barrels before holstering them to his back. He took his cellphone from his pocket and dialed a foreign number.

"Vlad. Mission complete."

-----

"What if they don't like me?!" Alicia asked in panic, hyperventilating. Takato pressed a calming hand onto her arm.

"My friends will like you no matter what," he said as the Lear jet took off. "Don't worry."

"What if your girlfriend doesn't like me?" she asked. "What if she doesn't want me to live with you on your yacht?"

"She'll only have a problem with you if you complain about our nightly activities," Takato said with a grimace. "So don't."

"But - "

"Ah, don't worry so much! You worry too much!" Takato groaned. "I could leave you here you know!"

"NO!"

-----

"This place is... interesting."

Takato snorted. Alicia glanced at him. "Sorry, deja-vu moment."

She beamed at him as they exited the taxi. "You're boat's really pretty!" she gushed. Standing in front of it was a large crowd of people. Dutch stood in the back - being the tallest - and had his arms crossed with a faint smile on his sunglassed face. Benny was holding onto Jane, who waved at Takato excitedly, a large ring glittering on her left hand. Rock and a heavily pregnant Revy were holding hands and waving at the arrivers. Cecilia was dressed in a revealing string bikini and had a towel in her hands, no doubt having come back from a dip in the sea. She was beaming at Taka, but giving the young girl next to him wary looks. Saito and Eda waved from their perch on his Porsche. Balalaika and Boris were even there, watching the new girl curiously.

Taka led Alicia by the arm as he half-dragged her to his friends and family. "Hey guys!" he greeted.

A chorus of greetings answered him. Revy stepped up, eyeing the young girl. Everyone held their breath. If Revy didn't like her, then she wouldn't last long in Roanapur, no matter what Taka did. She and Alicia looked at eachother warily.

"Just remember that I'm the big sister around here, and you're the little one bitch," she declared, before heading back to Rock, who was looking flustered.

"Umm...?" The 14 year old looked at Taka. He rolled his eyes.

"Revy says 'welcome to the family'," he explained.


	9. Vacation

Chapter Rating: M

Warning! Harry Potter spoof inside!

* * *

_Vacation_

"I have some news, my love," Cecila announced as she plopped down onto Takato's lap as he lay on the couch, watching TV.

"You're not pregnant are you?" he asked humorously.

"No, but not for the lack of trying," she winked mischieviously. Alicia gagged slightly in the background. "I want to go on a vacation!"

"Vacation?" Takato echoed. She hummed with a nod. "Where?"

"I don't know," she said vaquely as the door to the living room opened, and two and a half people bustled in. Rock greeted the three as Revy held onto their 8 month old daughter, Mei Ly, who looked around curiously.

"Hey everyone," Revy called, settling down onto the loveseat and fussing over her daughter. "What's up?"

"Just talking," Takato answered. "What about you guys?"

"It's a slow day at the office," Rock explained, sitting down on the chair next to Revy's. "Dutch told us to go have some fun."

Alicia went over to Revy and Mei Ly, and cooed over the cute baby girl, who gurgled happily and played with Alicia's fingers. The waifly 15 year old had taken private studies to finish her Grade 9 education, and was currently taking Grade 10 by the book. Takato wanted her to have a good education, despite living in Roanapur. The books were paid for by Balalaika, who also made sure Alicia's top notch grades were recorded into Western education systems. The Russian mafia leader had entered the young girl into an overseas sudent education plan, something like foreign exchange.

Revy lifted up her tight black shirt so she could breast feed Mei Ly, and the men dutifully turned their eyes towards the TV as she did it. After giving birth to her daughter, Revy would work out tirelessly when the baby slept, regaining her killer figure after a couple months. She reclined back on the chair as her daughter suckled at her chest. "Ahh, I'm so bored!" she whined. "Business sure is slow this summer!"

Takato nodded, and flipped through the channels. "Well, when _obasan_ pretty much owns Asia, there's not much fighting or delivering going on much more," he said observantly. "In fact, Cece was just talking about taking a vacation!"

Revy perked up and she held Mei Ly securely in her arms. "Vacation eh?" she mused. "What kind of vacation?"

"I haven't decided yet," Cecilia answered. "But somewhere pretty, and not so troublesome. After all, it's a vacation."

"How about America?" Rock suggested.

"Too cliche."

"I'm sick of Asia as well."

"Europe?"

"Hmm. Depends where."

"Not Romania, that's for sure," Cecilia declared.

"How bout the UK?"

Everyone turned to Takato. "Me and Saito lived there for a couple years, nice place and whatnot," he said. "I lived for the architecture, he liked the pubs."

"I've never been there before," Rock said, and Revy nodded in agreement.

"Me neither," Alicia said, as Cecilia chirped, "I want to go!"

Takato nodded, and moved Cece off his lap, ignoring her pout as he reached for his cellphone. "Okay, I'll give the bosses a call and see if we can pull it off for a week or two," he said.

-----

"Well, Miss Balalaika says she's cool with it, since everything's under control these days," Takato announced later that day. "Saito and Eda want to come as well, and they suggested that we all take the Miyuki and go on a cruise as well. How does that sound?"

Revy nodded happily. "This way we can take our guns!" she said, bouncing Mei Ly in her lap as the girl giggled. "Dutch said that he and Benny can take care of Lagoon company while we're gone, but only for a month max. Yukio said that she and Ginji were going to stay to help, so it's just us."

Takato nodded. "Okay, we've got more than enough rooms on board," he said. "Thanks to the modifications to her."

The Miyuki had been originally heightened another story from the factory (making it 34 feet high above-water), and lengthened another 20 feet in the past year (for more room space). The bedroom floor was right under the deck, and housed 5 rooms. Underneath was the living room, kitchen, storage, etc, and underneath that was the engine room and garage. The engines had been replaced with new 6000HP Sunseeker upgrade, which had recently been available. These engines were tuned to run off of a gasoline/nitrous mix from the new 11000L tank that came with the engines. Though the yacht was much, much bigger now (with 1/4 of its length dedicated to the fuel tank and engines), it was still very sleek due to its length, and even though it weighed 100 tons it could still kick 65 knots (or 75mph) easily. Takato had installed small front-facing water jet engines, which would help slow the boat down very quickly, or help turn as well. These engines were scavanged off of old Yamaha jetskis.

They quickly packed their things and filled out lists of things to do. The room arrangement were as followed;

Takato/Cecilia in master bedroom 1.

Rock/Revy/Mei Ly in master bedroom 2. (They needed the space for the baby supplies, crib, etc.)

Saito/Eda in a regular suite.

Alicia in her own suite.

And a spare suite that was being used for storage.

The women took Cecilia's X5 to go buy enough groceries to feed them all nicely for a few weeks, and stocked up the yacht. Takato, Rock and Saito unloaded most of their hidden weapons around the ship at Black Lagoon, entrusting Dutch and the others to take care of them. Takato gave Dutch the old minigun he had stolen a few years ago as payment, and promised to help the large black man mount it on his PT boat. They went around the city, saying their goodbyes before going to Hotel Moscow to arrange help with the British government.

Balalaika made sure that the Brits knew that the yacht was going to be heading over to them, and had a port reserved for the huge boat. Fortunetely, the British government had all but forgotten about the Sakamoto brothers, and it would be safe for them to head back after 5 years. On the evening of June 11th, 2008, they set sail for the UK.

-----

"Oh, I love watching the sea!" Cecillia cooed as she stood at the bow of the yacht, leaning over the rail as the mist of the Pacific Ocean sprinkled onto her face. Alicia was lounging out on the deck, catching a tan in her bikini. Revy was watching over Mei Ly as the little girl babbled on her blanket on the deck, while Eda tanned herself in a skimpy string bikini.

Takato was up on the bridge, setting the ship's continental GPS for autopilot, and Saito was helping out with the radar, making sure they avoided sea pirates, although any who were stupid enough to attack the yacht would be destroyed easily with their RPG rocket launchers, rotary grenade launchers and .50cal chain guns that would raise out of the deck and bridge thanks to hydraulics. Most military naval craft wouldn't spot them thanks to the mysterious stealth cloaking the ship wore on its skin, and as long as they stayed out of sight, they stayed out of mind.

Rock was chilling away on a deck chair, lounging back deeply as he typed away on his Toshiba Satellite laptop. He had subscribed to a satellite internet service like Benny, and could easily afford the $80/month fee from Startec. He was currently chatting with his co-workers back in Roanapur, while drinking some Heineken.

"Ooi, I'll start lunch in an hour or so!" Takato called from the open window. "Saito and I caught some wicked swordfish, so how about some grilled swordfish steaks with tartar sauce?"

"Sounds great!" "I can't wait!" "Yum!"

Takato pulled his head back into the bridge and smiled at his older brother. "Taking this vacation sure was a good idea," he said. "I'll have to thank Cece for thinking about it."

"I'm sure you will, later tonight," Saito smirked. "If we keep crusing down the Southern routes, we can make pit stops every 500 miles just to be safe."

"Our range is over 700 miles on a full tank," Takato reminded his brother.

"Better safe than sorry, and we all should get some land under our legs every once in a while."

"Ah, got it."

Lunch afterwards was delightful, the group dining on huge swordfish steaks that had been lightly sauced and seasoned, with a spray of lemon or tartar sauce on top. There were also fresh salads and scalloped potatoes as sidekicks, and a multitude of drinks were served. Mei Ly had her usual breast milk however.

Saito glanced up from his plate. "Oh, looks like we have visitors," he announced, directing everyone's attention to the small boat that was bearing down at them. He walked over to one of the deck chests and opened it.

"Surrender your boat, and maybe we let you live!" a black-toothed Vietnamese pirate yelled, aiming his AK-47 at the group on the deck. "Or maybe we take your pretty ladies yeah?"

"Hey, fuckers," Saito called from the bow. The pirates looked to their left and saw him pointing a six-barreled grenade launcher at their boat. "We're trying to eat here."

He fired all six rounds at the pathetic dingy the pirates were using and it exploded violently, sending several flaming bodies into the water. Mei Ly made a startled noise from all the loud explosions, and Revy rocked her soothingly like any good mother would.

"Fucking Viets," Saito muttered as he tossed the empty launcher back into the chest. He drew his 4.3 and aimed into the water, where 3 of the pirates were floating, still alive. He executed each one and holstered his pistol, heading back to the dinner table. "Sorry bout that."

"Meh," Revy shrugged, helping herself to another piece of steak. "If Mei Ly wasn't at my boob I'd have done it."

-----

Two weeks - and fourteen sunken pirate boats later - they docked port in the Port of London, and pulled their cars out of the garage. Many bystanders watched in awe as a 2007 BMW X5, a 2006 Mercedes S600 sedan (with 510HP from a biturbo V12) and a heavily modified 2001 Nissan Skyline R34 GTR drove out from the massive yacht that drawfed even some frieghters in the river.

Standing in the unusually rare clear skies of London City, the group of misfits looked around curiously. Takato and Saito were sad that they had to leave their Porsche and Honda back in Roanapur, but they needed passenger room over coolness. At least Takato's 700HP GTR was capable of carrying 5 people and going really, really fast. Then again, the huge S600 that Rock had gotten from Boss Chang could whoop most cars out there anyways.

"It's been a while," Saito commented as they looked around the city that had been their home a long time ago. "Hasn't changed much."

_"Iiya,"_ Taka agreed. He turned to the others. Rock would be driving his Mercedes, and Saito would be driving the BMW. "Hey rock, it's like Japan over here, you drive on the left side, got it?"

"Yeah, got it," Rock said, climbing into the driver's seat of his huge sedan. Revy buckled Mei Ly in the backseat to her carseat and joined him up front after giving her daughter some toys to play with.

Saito entered the SUV with Eda and Alicia, and Taka held the passenger door open on the left side of his Skyline for Cecilia to go in. Once she was secure, he closed the door and went to the right side, where the driver's seat was. Everyone gunned their engines, and blow off valves from the two cars could be heard as the turbos spooled up.

"Let's go find our hotel!" Taka cried into the vehicle's linked radio system, which all three vehicles had installed to keep constant communication between. Cheers were heard after this and he gunned the motor, making the BOV shriek as he put the car into gear. He nosed the Skyline out into traffic, and his friends followed after him.

-----

"Hey, there's some sort of huge movie premiere happening uptown today," Eda announced as she read the July 11th edition of the London Times. "What the hell is Harry Potter?"

Alicia's head popped up. "Oh my god, Harry Potter?" she squealed. "Gimmie!"

She snatched the paper out of Eda's hands and read viciously as the blond women raised a delicately arched eyebrow at her curiously. She squealed again.

"Omigod, the Half Blood Prince premiere is today!" she cried. She pounced upon Taka. "Canwegocanwegocanwego?????" she begged.

"Sure, but what the hell is Harry Potter?" Takato asked as the young girl bounced excitedly as she clutched his arm.

"Only the coolest, most awesomeness book series in the world!" she declared. "And Daniel Radcliffe is such a freaking hottie!"

"I take it that he's an actor?" Saito asked in amusement. Alicia nodded. She let go of Taka's arm to his relief and bolted to her suite in the hotel they were staying at, the JCT and began to find a dress she could wear. The adults smiled at her enthusiasm and got up as well, albeit much slowly and headed to their rooms to change as well.

The drive from the hotel was nervewracking, since there was heavy traffic as what looked like everyone in the damn city wanted to get to the movie premiere. It took nearly 2 hours to find their way uptown, and another half hour to fight for parking spaces before they finally continued on foot towards Leicester Square, where thousands of people were cheering and waving things as a bunch of limos offloaded celebrities. The men fought and pushed their way to a nice spot just outside of the main building and watched as a bunch of famous people walked down the red carpet, smiling and waving at their fans.

"All that time for _this_?" Taka muttered boredly as he wiped some imaginary dust off the shoulder of his Armani suit with 3/4 jacket. It was white, of course and E&I were dutifully underneath the coatails. Cecilia watched excitedly (though not nearly as excitedly as Alicia, who was waving a thick hardcore book titled _Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince_ at one of the actors) as she held onto his arm with her hands. He smiled down at the tiny young woman and gave her a quick kiss.

"Oh Dan! Dan!" Alicia cried. "Can I get your autograph???"

One of the actors, a handsome young man with a strong jawline stopped and turned to Alicia. He was wearing an expensive suit, most likely Versace or something similar, that was a simple black. On his arm was a pretty girl with dirty blond hair, who was wearing a very nice Vera Wang dress that was a light blue, and had some serious rocks dangling from her ears, neck and wrists. They came over Alicia, who happily presented them with her book and marker. Both celebrities signed it.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" the teen named Dan yelled over the cheering.

"Totally!" Alicia yelled back, even though they were only 2 feet apart. "It's my first time in the UK!"

"I'm happy you made it to see this!" the famous girl shouted with a smile.

Takato nudged his "little sister". "Who's this?" he asked.

Alicia beamed. "That's Daniel Radcliffe," she said dreamily, "And Emma Watson!"

"Pleasure to meet you!" Takato said loudly with a bow. Both teenagers shook his hands. "I must have been out of the loop for too long, you sure look popular!"

"I know!" Dan yelled with a grin. "One more movie to go!"

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the main building, and chunks of stone rained down everyone as people started screaming. Saito had moved quickly and shielded both celebrities with his body, grunting as baseball sized stone fragments pelted his back.

"What's going on?!" the girl named Emma cried. From above the smoking building, dozens of armed men began to rappel down its sides, moving quickly to surround the celebrities that were littered about the red carpet.

"NOBODY MOVE OR WE'LL SEND YOU LOT STRAIGHT TO HELL!" one of them, a large American with a buzzcut shouted maniacally, spewing automatic fire from his SOPMOD M4. "WE'LL JUST BE TAKING THESE FAMOUS FOLK AND LEAVING YOU ALONE NOW!"

His men started to round up the various celebrities, like Rupert Grint, Katie Leung, Bonnie Wright and Gary Oldman. A group headed towards the most famous actors, who were standing in fear with Takato's group. Come on people, you know Dan and Emma are the most famous... Sheesh...

"Hand em over asshole," one of the soldiers ordered harshly, pointing his M4 at Saito, who raised an eyebrow at him. A loud burst of fire dropped him and his 7 men to the ground, bodies twitching. People and cameramen all round turned to see Takato step forward, Ebony and Ivory smoking as he had an ugly look on his face. Ok well, he can't ever look ugly, so I suppose it's just a look of distastes. Yeah, that works.

"God damn it, can't I go anywhere without shooting someone?" he asked irritably, waving his gun clad hands around him. In the back, Revy passed Mei Ly to Rock, who slipped through the crowd with Cecilia and Alicia and dissapeared off to safety. "Hey! Motherfuckers! You ruined my vacation!"

He then moved in a blur, firing his pistols into the many soldiers as they retaliated, sending innocent bystanders to the ground as bullets whizzed through the air above them. Revy drew Sword Cutlasses and joined the fray, cackling madly as she finally got to kill someone after nearly 2 years. Saito ushered the two actors behind a large chunk of rubble as he took pot shots with his Infinity, intent on protecting them while Eda provided cover fire from her chunk of wall nearby.

Takato, meanwhile, had zipped all over the place and was cleanly cutting a path through the soldiers, deflecting or shooting bullets away as he pressed forward with Revy. Suddenly, a line of soldiers raised their rifles, which had M203 grenade launchers underneath. They both looked at eachother and sighed.

"I feel stupid for leaving the RPGs on the boat," Takato said.

"Whatever. Jump!"

They leapt back as far as they could to avoid the multiple small explosions that sent rocks flying everywhere. Revy rolled behind an abandoned SUV limo and took cover as gunfire peppered its frame. Takato shot and rolled as he ducked behind the rubble that Saito, Dan and Emma were hiding behind.

"Hey brother, havinig fun?" Saito yelled, firing his 4.3 over his head as he sat pressed up to the rubble. Takato leaned out the side and fired blindly with Ebony.

"I've seen worse!" he shouted back. He looked at the teenagers. "You two okay?"

"We're still alive if that's what you mean!" Emma screamed, covering her face with her hands.

"You know, it's a time like this that I kind of wish I was a real wizard," Dan hollered, covering Emma's body with his own in an attempt to shield her from the fragments of rock that were chipped away from bullets.

"You know, I met a real wizard once," Takato told the young actor named Daniel as they hid behind the wall from gunfire. "His name was Rotton."

"Rotton?" the 18 year old asked incredulously. "Really, a wizard?"

Takato shrugged. "That's what he said," he said in defense. "I'll ask him next time I see him. HEY! THAT ALMOST HIT ME!" he screamed as a bullet whizzed by, nicking the sleeve of his jacket. He leapt out from the wall, firing as he flew sideways and landed next to Eda at her shield. "YOU FUCKERS OWE ME 4 GRAND!"

"Hi Taka," Eda said happily as she reloaded her Glock 17L. Taka switched clips in his guns as well. She fired rapidly, managing to down a pair of soldiers who had stupid gotten too close. "They're wearing body armor, so try for some head shots."

"Will do," Taka said, standing up and fring two shots, grinning as he saw two heads explode, making the soldiers' helments sink to their ruined necks. "Zing!"

"You know, if we save these little shits, we should get a nice amount of money for it," Eda grumbled as she killed another soldier with a bullet to the nose. "I mean seriously, we're wasting all of our bullets!"

"I think if we save these little shits, we should hightail out of the UK as fast as we can!" Takato yelled back, pointing at a cameraman, who was on the ground filming the entire thing. "I don't want to get _obasan_ mad at me for getting an entire nation on my ass!"

Suddenly, the terrorist soldiers were gunned down by heavy fire as the British SAS arrived, reducing their ranks quickly. Whatever survivors there were left in a hurry, being chased by the expert soldiers. Takato and Eda breathed a sigh of relief before exchanging worried looks. Takato holstered Ebony and Ivory and quickly whipped out his cell phone.

"_Obasan_, I need a favor..."

-----

_"The permiere of the new Harry Potter movie was marred by the terrifying attack of ex-US military terrorists today,"_ the TV news announcer said as he stood in front of the battleground that was Leicester Square. _"These terrorists had planned on kidnapping the famous stars from the magical movie series in order to get ransom money for their lives, to fund their terrorist cell. Fortunately, our favorite stars were saved by a small group of off-duty soldiers from a Private Military Company based in Asia, and the four soldiers held ground amazing against unbeatable odds long enough until the army arrived. We now go to special correspondent -"_

Saito turned the volume off. "At least Balalaika isn't pissed," he sighed. "After all, it wasn't really our fault."

"Ack, we're too damn honorable," Takato moaned as he sprawled out on his bed, Cecilia wrapped around his body as she rubbed his muscles, which had gotten sore from all the jumping and landing earlier that day. The TV showed shots from various cameramen of Takato dancing around, firing his guns using Gun Kata, a shot of Revy firing Sword Cutlasses from behind the limo, Saito protecting the actors, etc...

"And we didn't even get paid," Eda sulked from the couch, nibbled on her cigarette.

"It was more of a revenge thing," Revy muttered, while breast feeding Mei Ly. "Besides, we're famous now!"

Rock shrugged. "Well, we can't argue with that," he said. He smiled wryly at Alicia. "At least someone got something out of it."

Alicia had been contacted by many of the Harry Potter cast and they showered her with HP memorablia, and JK Rowling had even visited the hotel and gave her a bunch of autographed stuff. The 15 year old was currently lying on her stomach on her bed, dressed completely in wizarding robes with a Gryffindor scarf around her neck. She was reading a collector's edition tin-plated copy of The Deathly Hallows, which had been autographed all over the footnotes and blank pages by JK Rowling and the entire Harry Potter cast and was twirling an actual Harry Potter replica wand used from the movie sets in her fingers. The group of younger actors had then invited her and her family to dinner later that night, and they were also invited the replacement premiere, which would be held at another location, with army guard.

"Lucky her," Eda muttered, opening a can of Jagermeister. She took a long chung and set the can down on the table. "At least we get a free meal out of this."

"Yeah, where are we going again?" Cece asked, who had started to nibble at Taka's neck, making him groan. He retaliated by tickling her mercilessly, making her shriek with laughter.

"The Rules restaurant in Covent Garden," Rock said, reading the brochure. "It specializes in high-class game and roasts, and also has a wide selection of traditional puddings."

"Mmm, meat," Takato grinned, smacking his lips and stocking his tickle attack on Cecilia. She pouted and made a wounded noise, so he gave her a pleasent kiss to make up for it. She beamed happily afterwards, and snuggled into his chest.

-----

"Fancy place," Revy commented as they entered the posh restaurant, juggling Mei Ly and her daiper bag in her arms. The group was dressed formally for the occasion, and while Revy disliked her Dior dress, her husband couldn't keep his eyes off the black silk that hugged her curves. Mei Ly was dressed in an adorable baby's dress, which was white, and she even had a bracelet made out of flowers on her wrist.

"For sure," Takato agreed, dressed in a customary white tuxedo, but this time with Ebony and Ivory holstered outside the jacket, since he didn't have to fear being caught anymore. A maitre d came up to them.

"Ah, there you are!" he said cheerfully, giving them a polite bow. "If you'll follow me ladies and gentlemen, I shall take you to The Greene room, where your hosts await."

"Lead away!" Eda said, and they followed the man. They were lead to a beautiful room with a long table, where a small ensemble of actors awaited them. Seated at the 20 person table were Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Katie Leung, Oliver and James Phelps, Tom Felton, Clemence Poesy, Devon Murray and Matthew Lewis. They all clapped when the group came in, and some even whistled.

"There's the guests of honor!" Oliver cried, helping them get seated. Mei Ly squealed unhappily as she was seated in a booster chair, but quieted when her mother sat down beside her.

"We hope you don't mind, but we've already ordered some drinks," Dan said, gesturing towards the bottles of Port wine. Takato raised his eyebrow.

"Thought I'd never live to see the day when a kid buys me £240.00 bottles of wine," he remarked, letting a waiter pour him a glass of the delicious red liquid. He sipped it. "Ahh, wonderful, I haven't had post-war Sanderman Vintage in years!"

The others had their glasses filled and delighted in the taste of the sweet, peppery drink while Mei Ly drank some bottled breast milk in her bottle.

"We've also already ordered from the menu, so our wait was shorter," Emma explained. "I hope you like Quail. It's the main course, and very delicious."

-----

The group enjoyed their starter course of Cornish crab and lobster cocktail, with avacodos and Revy's cute baby was horribly spoiled with various types of pudding.

"So, tell us a bit about work," Tom Felton asked, wiping his mouth with a napkin as he finished his plate. "What's it like?"

Revy shrugged. "It's alright," she said. "Good money and easy jobs. Work whenever you want, shoot whoever you want -" Saito glared at her "- during jobs you know," she explained. "It's a cushy life."

"So do you all work for the same company?" Katie, the Scottish-Chinese actress asked in her broque.

"Me and Rock are from a smaller one, Saito and Taka have their own and same goes to Eda," Revy said. "But we all take jobs from a joint employer I guess."

"No offense, but you don't look like the soldier type," Bonnie told Rock, who laughed.

"I'm like the accountant or public relations," he explained, and the young ginger-hair girl "Ahh"d.

"So how dangerous is it?" Rupert asked eagerly. "Lots of shoot-ups like today?"

Takato laughed. "I've seen worse," he said to their surprised faces. "Most of the times it's more bad guys, but shittier guns, so today was a little tough with those ex-army guys."

"Thank God you guys were there today," Emma said with a shudder as Dan was entertained by Alicia. "I don't even want to think about what would have happened to us if they got away with it."

"Most likely you would have been captured, tortured, held for ransom and then probably killed after they got their money," Eda droned, picking at her teeth with a toothpick. "What? That's probably what would have happened back home."

Their main course arrived, and conversation returned to its cheery livelieness as everyone dined on the succulent avian feast that lay before them. Takato talked with the twins about various buildings in England, while Cecilia was pestered by the younger females about her hair and looks, as Alicia happily chatted up all the stars randomly. It was a pleasant evening, and fortunately no guns had to be fired that night.

-----

"Tell me, why are we going to this _fucking_ thing again?" Revy asked irritably, whispering the curse word since her daughter was in the room. She was struggling to put on a new red and black Versace dress, that hung to her knees and was very nice looking on her body. Rock shrugged helplessly as he put his Armani suit on and fiddled with the tie.

"Because Balalaika and the others are expecting to see us on TV," he ventured.

"I can't even wear my guns with this shitty dress!" she exploded, waving angrily to her pistols, which lay on the table in their shoulder holster.

"Sure you could, but you'd look like a freak if you did," Eda said, popping her head in the room. Her blue eyes twinkled at Revy from behind her pink sunglasses as she waltzed into the room, wearing a stunning deep green dress with a long slit that reached her right leg to her hip. She had her G17L strapped to her thigh.

Revy growled. "How come _you_ can bring your gun?!" she whined pathetically, giving a longing look to her Cutlasses.

"Cuz I make it work Revy," Eda waved off, sauntering out of the room.

"That does it!" Revy cried, slamming the door shut and waking up Mei Ly, who started to drool on herself. "Rock! Take your jacket off!"

They exited the room a short while later, Rock shifting his shoulders uncomfortably as he got used to the new weights that hung on them. Revy tossed a triumphant smirk towards Eda, who rolled her eyes as she tightened the ankle-high straps on her black stilettos. Mei Ly was then carried out by a nanny, one of the best they could hire on short notice and the woman was slightly frazzled after Revy's not-so-veiled threats of what she would do to the young woman if Mei Ly was hurt or anything.

"Everyone ready?" Takato asked, appearing in yet another white tuxedo, this time with a black vest and 3/4 length, pistols on the outside. He had white alligator skin dress shoes on and wore a wicked white fedora on top of his head. Saito was dressed in his usual black dress pants, a nice navy blue dress shirt and a charcoal grey cotton vest, with his sunglasses on. Cecilia was in a very fancy dress, that had modern and old fashioned styles on it, much like what she wore in her psychotic days. It was a nice pale pink, which matched her complexion nicely, and she had a thick white choker on her neck that had a little sapphire in the middle. Alicia was dressed in a pretty white dress that showed off her thin frame nicely, and showed off her creamy shoulders with a low-cut spaghetti strap top.

"The limo's waiting outside, let's go!"


	10. Premiere Redux

Chapter Rating: M

We're nearing the end here, one more chapter...

* * *

_Premiere Redux_

"Tell me why the fuck I'm doing this again?" Revy gritted as they walked down the red carpet to the amphitheatre, amidst screaming crowds and camera flashes.

"Shut up. Wave. Smile," Eda said through her teeth as she did just that. Revy rolled her eyes and plastered on a fake smile as they followed the others into the large theatre.

"Finally, we're out of there!" she muttered, settling into one of the reserved seats near the younger actors. Rock sat down next to her and she lolled her head onto his shoulders, giving his side a pat to make sure her guns were still there. Everyone else sat down quickly and soon the theatre was filled to the brim as the lights dimmed, and Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince premiered for the first time (though a day late) in the world. Alicia watched the screen eagerly.

-----

"I guess you have to see the first five to understand what the hell is going on," Eda said as she swirled her Crown Royale while she leaned on the railing on the deck of the Miyuki. Takato had invited all the actors to an after party on the exquisite yacht and everyone agreed, packing the boat full. The Port of London was packed with limos and celebrities as the ones who couldn't fit onto the ship were partying down on the docks, which had been fancied up for them. Saito had made sure to lock off all weapons and suspicious artifacts beforehand, and everyone was partying out as the ship's deck speakers blasted loud music and pounding bass of whatever was popular.

Takato was leading the party with a glass of vodka in hand, and his other on the music controls. Many of the guests were dancing to the music and everyone was having a great time. There were photographers, news crews and even paparazzi all over the place, but they were strictly forbidden to enter the yacht, for penalty of being shot by Revy if she found them. They wisely stayed away after she shattered one man's Nikon camera in his hands with a bullet.

Screams caught everyone's attention, and Taka shut off the music and headed up to the bridge to see what was going on. A procession of Humvees and jeeps were smashing their way through limos and people as machinegun fire sprayed into the crowds, causing people to scatter. The convoy of 10 vehicles was heading straight for the Miyuki. He grabbed the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please duck and cover your ears and/or eyes, this will all be over shortly," he announced through the ship's mainspeaker. He flipped a few switches on the weapons console and hidden hatches and panels opened up to reveal .50 caliber chainguns, remote controlled RPG and grenade launchers, and small 60mm canon at the bow of the ship. "Fire in the hole!"

The night sky lit up brightly as tracer rounds filled the air and tore into the lead Humvee, turning it into scrap metal. The other trucks swerved to avoid the gunfire, but the computer-controlled guns picked off another two before the starboard side RPG launched a rocket towards a Jeep, blowing it sky high. The grenade launchers lobbed 40mm grenades in the general area of the convoy, peppering the ground with explosions and there was a loud _BOOM! _as the canon made the ship tilt slightly to the left as it fired in the starboard direction. The highly explosive round tore into another Humvee, sending shrapnel everywhere, and also bodyparts. The .50cals continued firing until nothing was left and soon the sky was dark and quiet once again.

The British army arrived after the last Jeep was turned into swiss cheese and began to search for any hostile survivors. To their great fortune, they found the leader of the ex-army terrorists and quickly dragged him off to interrogation. The celebrities on and surrounding the Miyuki watched in awe as the previously hidden weapons slide back into the ship's frame, leaving nothing but wooden decks and barely visible seams in the hull.

Suddenly, Takato's voice boomed through the speakers. "Ah, dammit, my mix CD got scratched!"

-----

Three days later, the occupants of the Miyuki waved off the deck and bridge as their yacht made to leave port. There was a large crowd of people (mostly celebrities) that waved them off, many of them jumping up and down excitedly as the huge assault/luxury cruiser drifted down the Thames. Takato was manning the helm, and Saito was navigating for him. Revy was standing at the bow of the ship, a la George Washington pose as she and the nose of the yacht guiding the boat into the open sea.

The cruise home was quicker than when they left, and Takato had kicked up the speed to 50 knots, wanting to get out of British waters eagerly. They refueled their diesel tank in Spain and jetted off to Asia. It wasn't until another 11 days that they finally reached Roanapur, where they were welcomed by their friends and employers. They quickly settled back into their normal routine, but Alicia could be seen walking around dreamily, holding a photograph of Dan giving her a kiss on the cheek at the afterparty.

-----

"So. This is where he died," Cecilia said softly as she, Takato and Rock stood in the square, in front of the fountain that churgled water happily. It had been 3 years since the death of her twin brother Hanzel, and she felt it was long due for a proper mourning.

Takato put his arms around her waist as he stood behind the 18 year old girl. Rock was standing beside them and lent her a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"They said he was shot by snipers," she continued, holding the large bouquet of roses. She set it down on the spot where she knew Hanzel had died, since the stone bricks were still a copperish tint from the staining of blood all those years ago. "And Miss Balalaika watched him die."

She stood back up and took her lover's hand. "Even though I've changed, I can't help but miss him," she said, starting to tear up. "He was my other half you know?"

She sighed, and wiped her eyes. "Come on, let's go home."

Takato pulled the Nissan up to the ramp on the dock which lead to the garage on the Miyuki. He let the other two out first before parking it inside with the Porsche and bike. Cecilia's BMW was usually parked at the Black Lagoon office. The current crew was off on a delivery mission that didn't require Rock, and he had gone out with Taka and Cece on the promise that they would bring him back soon before his year-old daughter woke up from her nap. They walked their way over to the next lot, and up the metal steps of the stairs to Lagoon office, where they settled down. As if on cue, a baby's cries drifted from Revy's room and Rock went to attend to Mei Ly.

"Is Alicia still with Yukio?" Cece asked as she wrapped herself around Taka's waist while both lovers lazed on the couch.

"Yeah," Takato yawned. It was early in the morning. Alicia had slept over at Yukio's penthouse for the past few days, and the girls had become inseperable. Yukio thought of the younger girl as a little sister of sorts, which wasn't a far-off assumption since everyone was a big huge family nowadays. "I'm sure Yuki's taking care of her."

"Mmm."

The phone rang. Rock came out with Mei Ly in his arms and went to pick it up. He pressed the phone against his shoulder and returned both hands to holding his squirming baby. "Black Lagoon," he greeted. His eyes widened.

"Are you sure?" he asked quickly. He nodded his head tersely. "Yes, he's here. One moment."

Rock hurried over to Taka and motioned to the phone. Taka took it and pressed it to his ear.

"Hello?"

_"We have some trouble,"_ Balalaika's voice answered tightly.

"What's wrong _obasan_?" he asked worriedly.

_"Dutch and the others are in deep shit."_

-----

Fifteen minutes later, Takato and Saito were seated in Balalaika's office, where the Russian leader herself sat before them at her desk. She pressed her forehead into her hands and sighed loudly.

"Three hours ago Dutch gave me a call and told me that he had picked up some cargo for Chang from Hong Kong," she started. "They were On their way back when they were attacked by a large Triad faction that doesn't like Chang."

"Are they okay?" Saito asked.

Balalaika shrugged angrily. "I don't know," she bit out. "Dutch's last words to me were 'It's too risky. Don't send help.' before we lost contact."

Takato slammed his fist onto the desk. "Dammit!" he swore. He noticed the cracks and fissures on the fine oak surface. "Oh, shit, sorry _obasan_!"

She waved him off. "I need a new one anyways," she said dismissively. "Despite what Dutch told me, I want to send help. He and I go far back..."

She looked up at the brothers, her pseudo-sons. "This is asking a lot out of the both of you... but..."

"Pfft, need you even ask?" Saito answered, indulging her with a grin. "What're the odds?"

She made a "well..." gesture. "Maybe 300 to 2?" she said. "500 to 2? This is one of the main groups fighting for total dominance in China. They're sadistic, ruthless and pack big toys."

"Well we do too," Takato said, thinking of the Miyuki. "What do they have, anti-aircraft guns? Our ship is bullet-proof up to 25mm!"

Balalaika raised her eyebrow at him. "They have ex-Navy missile cruisers," she said dryly. "With 80mm forward and rear canons, TOW missile launchers, torpedos, mines, gatling guns and most likely multi-shot rocket pods."

"That could be a problem," Saito gulped.

-----

"Thanks for the help, with such short notice Sister Yolanda," Saito said as he and Rico packed ammo crates into the 50' trailer of the 18-wheeler. "We really appreciate it."

"Don't worry a thing about it young man," Sister Yolanda waved off, smiling. "We all appreciate Dutch's business too. We don't want him dead either. Take what you need, it's on the house. Here, take Eda as well!"

"What?!" Eda cried, falling to her ass. "But I - oh okay..."

"That's the last of it!" Rico said with a grin, the forklift he was driving pushing a very large crate into the trailer. Takato lugged some large metal boxes of munitions on top of it, and Saito shut the doors. "Hope they help!"

"Thank you again," Takato said, bowing to Rico and Sister Yolanda. "We'll try to bring them back in one piece."

"Of course. Good luck you three."

-----

"I really hope you guys don't fuck this up," Eda moaned as she helped Saito load the last of the cargo into the now-emptied garage. Takato was outside, using a forklift to place a large crate of weapons on the bow section deck. "This isn't a new asshole we're talking about, it's being blown up!"

"We'll manage, don't worry," Saito said with a steely glint in his eyes. "We didn't escape the entire British Navy with luck all those years ago..."

Takato entered the garage through the hatch. "Everything's topside," he announced, eating an apple. "Everything's in place."

Saito nodded. "Eda!" he said, making his girlfriend turn around. She was dressed in a black catsuit. "Do you have to papers with coordinates of the Black Lagoon's last known position?"

"Right here!" she said, pulling out a folded wad of papers from God-knows where. Saito took them and looked them over thoroughly.

"Hmm, looks like somewhere in the East China Sea," he said, tracing the lines that the Black Lagoon had travelled. "Look, their movements were erratic, zigzagging and all over the place. I bet they were trying to dodge gunfire and attacks. They disappeared around 310 miles from the shores of Shanghai."

"You think the Triad crippled them and left them to the Koreans?" Takato asked insightfully. Saito shook his head.

"No, I had Sergent Boris scan the news for anything suspicious, naval-wise," he said. "Korea wasn't on the list, but there was a suspicious newcast of the Chinese Navy performing 'wargames' in that area, and to disregard any noises of battle... My guess is the Triad somehow got the Navy off their backs and dragged the Lagoon back to Hong Kong."

"So, to Hong Kong then?" Takato asked with a smirk.

"Set sail brother."

-----

Some days later, the Miyuki snuck into Hong Kong's naval harbor under the mask of night. The yacht was on silent running, with the engines powered at 1/8th and making very little noise that couldn't be heard over the sea's noises. Since it was mostly black, the Miyuki was well-hidden in the dark and no radar could detect it. Takato was in the back of the yacht, just outside of the garage. He pressed the throat-mic's speak button.

"Go time?" he mumbled in his throat, the highly sensitive microphone clearly transmitting his voice to Saito and Eda up at the bridge.

_"Yes, but be careful," _Saito responded. _"The cruisers are armed with Phalanx anti-missile gatling guns."_

"I'll just have to get closer then," Takato smirked. "The one downside of those guns is that A: none are placed at the very rear of the ship and B: they'll shoot at flares easily with their automatic systems."

_"Good luck, be safe."_

"You too."

Takato then pressed a button on the remote control he was holding, and with a slight noise, he and the inflating RIB he was sitting on was ejected backwards from the Miyuki, hitting the water with a jolt. Once it settled down, Takato started the engine, which had been muffled with a large foam cover. He zipped away from the Miyuki, and headed towards the Triad cruisers.

As he sat in the backseat of the RIB, jostling with the medium waves, he glanced at the cargo in front of him. There were six stacked crates, each containing a fully-loaded and armed FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher. These launchers were normally used for pulverizing tanks, but would work very nicely on ships as well. They were very long (43 inch) missiles with dual-warheads that packed a very big punch. They were fire-and-forget systems, which only required the operator to lock on, squeeze the trigger and haul ass, and the missile would take care of its self with radar guidance. They had a maximum range of 2500 meters, or 8200 feet.

Takato's mission was to creep around each 200-foot cruiser and check to see which of the 6 held the Black Lagoon, if they held it at all. If he couldn't find the PT boat, then he was to tie his RIB to the side of each cruiser, cover it with black tarp, and board each one, and search for the crew themselves. Using the intelligence they got from Balalaika, Saito deduced that the cruisers had just set into port no more than 20 minutes before they had, since they had continued their "wargames" longer to provide good cover for themselves. So, there was a very good likelihood that Dutch, Benny and Revy were stil on one of the ships.

Pulling up beside the hull of the nearest cruiser, Takato shut his engine off and pulled a pair of magnetic clamps from the chest that the boat had. If he pressed the triggers on each one with his thumb and index finger, they would activate and attach themselves to any thick metal. Since they had a thick rubber coating on the magnets, they wouldn't make any noises either. He stuck himself to the hull, and started to silently pull himself along the side of the ship. Looking up and around, he saw no PT boats tied to the lifecraft rig, or the rescue lines. He detatched himself and put the magnets away. With a strong push, he floated some distance away before starting up his engine and moving on.

Half an hour later, he reported to his brother that none of the cruisers had the Black Lagoon on them. It was time to go to Plan B, maybe C if he were lucky enough. He used the magnetic clamps to latch onto the cruiser he was currently at and used some cord to tie the RIB down. Opening the chest, he brought out the tarp and covered the boat, which made it undiscernable from the night water beneath it. Opening the riflebag on his back, he withdrew a Tavor TAR-21 bullpup assault rifle. The highly futuristic weapon was a compact, but full-length-barrel rifle that had the magazine located behind the handgrip, and the firing assembly as well. The sleek looking rifle was the Commando version, which was slightly shorter than a normal one and therefore more compact. The gun was equipped with an built-in holographic targeting sight/laser combo and a thick 180mm cylinder suppressor on its barrel threads. It had a full 30 round magazine with 5.56 NATO rounds inside.

Checking his tac vest, Taka made sure he had his 6 spare mags in their pouches. Pulling the bolt back, he armed the TAR and flicked the selector switch to Auto. Making another equipment check, he made sure his silenced SOCOM .45 was in his thigh holster, and its 4 spare clips in their belt pouches as well. He was ready to go. Tossing the rifle bag back into the RIB, he took out his magnetic grapple-gun and fired upwards, before pulling himself onto the deck.

-----

Thankfully, all of the cruisers had their deck lights turned off, to conserve power and only inside, under the deck they had their lights on. There were some patrols, who were smartly dressed in Chinese Navy uniforms, but they were carrying non-military issued Uzis and UMPs, so they had to be Triad. Sneaking along, Taka made his way to a porthole and glanced into the round window. Perfect. A single mobster was standing in the short hallway, facing the other way. He opened the door quietly and stepped into the hallway, raising his rifle. A muffled crack later, he picked up the dead man, who was sporting a new hole in the back of his head and stashed him in a broom closet. Using a mop he found inside, Taka quickly wiped the spatter of blood off the wall as best as he could before moving onward.

Some very skilled sneaking later, Taka found none of the Black Lagoon crew onboard, and stealthily made his way off the ship. Once he was back on his RIB, he pressed his throat mic.

"Saito, come in."

_"Roger, what's up?"_

"Cross the cruiser with the number 112 off the list, it's empty," Takato mumbled.

_"Will do. Keep going, Eda's looking constipated over here."_

Taka chuckled as he shut off his mic and gunned the motor, heading to the next ship.

-----

Another hour later, cruisers 110, 093, 272 and 144 were added to the list. The last one, 111 was Taka's final stop, and he prayed that the crew were on it and alive. Disembarking the RIB, he made his way on and immediately had to shoot a Triad as the man turned around in surprise. The body was pierced with a 3 round burst and slumped to the ground. Swearing, Taka looked around to see if he was seen by anyone else, but the port side was empty. Silently cursing at the dead man, he heaved him overboard, and the corpse hit the waters below with a muffled splash over the waves. Takato entered one of the portholes and continued his search. He walked down some stairs to the B-floor of the cruiser and had to press himself up against a nearby wall to avoid being seen by a pair of mobsters walking by.

""Hear what the boss did to those pirates today?"" one of them asked the other in Cantonese. ""It was fucking priceless!""

""Oh?"" the other asked eagerly. ""Tell me!"

""You know that Chinese bitch that was with them?""

Taka grit his teeth.

""Yeah! She's not too bad, too bad she's a fucking garbage-mouth.""

""Well the boss savagely beat her today,"" the first one said with an evil laugh. ""The others said they couldn't tell her from raw meat when he was done. Whatever these punks did, it sure pissed him off.""

""Wow, that sounds great!"" the second one chuckled. ""Where are they being held now?""

""Down in the D-level engine room,"" the first one said. ""We'll go visit later!""

"Don't think so," Taka muttered, stepping out behind them and putting a bullet into each of their heads. He stuffed the bodies into a nearby empty room and locked the door, before heading back to the stairs. "So they're in engine rooms. Thanks guys."

He quickly took the stairs down to the bottom level, having to take out a few more idiot patrollers on the way. Sneaking down the hallway, he spotted a pair of heavily armed guards standing in front of a large red hatch. They were armed with AK-47s. Hiding in the shadows of one of the support beams against the wall, Taka crouched to one knee and took careful aim, splattering the guards' brains against the wall. He checked to see if the coast was clear and ran towards the hatch, turning the lever and throwing it open. Inside was the boiling hot engine room, and a small group of figures lying sprawled out on the floor. Takato ran up to them.

"Dutch!" he hissed, shaking the large man's shoulder. "Dutch, wake up!"

Dutch groaned, rolling over to reveal a blacker eye than usual, and a split lip. He was also sporting a large gash on his left cheek. "Taka?" he groaned. "I thought I told -"

"Since when do I listen to you?" Taka smirked. He quickly woke Benny up, who was tied tightly with metal cords that cut deeply into his wrists and ankles. "Benny! Benny, Jane wants to know if you'd like to be a father!"

"Uhhh, whaaa?" Benny mumbled, coming to consciousness. "Takaaa?"

"Yeah!" Taka grinned. He rolled Revy over and gasped. Her face was beaten black and blue, and her lip sported a large gash in it. Her nose had to be broken, and one eye was swelled up so bad it wouldn't likely be able to open. Her clothes were torn to shreds, showing too much skin that was red from blood and lacerations. Her right arm looked broken, from the way she wheezed, probably some ribs. "Oh, _ne-chan_..."

"Taka, how did you get here?" Dutch demanded as he got up, shaking the cobwebs from his eyes. "You can't take these guys head on!"

"And you can?" Takato asked with a raised eyebrow, hefting Revy up, who moaned softly. "We came well-prepared."

"'We'?"

"Me, Saito and Eda."

"I sure hope so. Our PT boat managed to launch a torpedo and damage one of the ships before they blew us out of the water," Dutch grumbled. "Fucking Chinks."

"Hey now," Revy mumbled, one eye flickering open. "You wanna die Dutchy..."

"Revy!" Takato prodded, but she fell unconscious again. "Dutch, can you carry her?"

"Of course," Dutch said, affronted as he hefted Revy into his arms, wedding-style. "So, what kind of miracle are you working tonight?"

"One of Sakamoto proportions," Taka grinned as he cut Benny's bonds. He quickly wrapped some bandages around the man's joints, earning a relieved thanks from the blond. "You're gonna love it when the shit hits the fan!"

They quickly got out of the room, and Dutch handed Revy off to Benny as he picked up the dead mobster's AK-47 and a the clip from the other one.

"Don't shoot it off while we're still on here," Takato warned. He unshouldered his TAR-21. "That's what this is for. If you have to shoot something, take this."

He handed Dutch his suppressed SOCOM, and the older man nodded before slinging the AK to his back and taking the pistol, and put the spare clips into his pocket. "Let's blow this dump!"


	11. Escape of Epic Proportions

Chapter Rating: M

* * *

_Escape of Epic Proportions_

"I've got all three of them!" Takato said into the mic. "We're heading out of here!"

_"How are they?" _Saito asked worriedly. _"Are they injured?"_

Takato winced. "Yeah," he answered. "Revy will definitely need some help. Listen, we're almost at the deck, I'll call you back later."

He shut off his mic and opened the porthole, pointing his bullpup left and right as he sweeped the area with the suppressed nose of his rifle. Seeing that the coast was clear, he moved forward, using Army hand signals to tell Dutch to follow. He quickly threw some ropelines down to his RIB and they very carefully took turns carrying Revy down to the small boat. Once Taka threw off the tarp, and discarded it into the water, they settled in tightly behind the weapon crates. Gunning the engine loudly, they sprinted away from the cruiser.

"Showtime Saito!" Takato yelled, and far off in the distance canonfire lit the sky as the 120mm artillery gun they borrowed from the Church of Violence opened massive automatic fire on the cruisers. Klaxxon sirens filled the air, but the mobsters were slow to the response as one ship was soon a flaming decktop as the slow automatic shelling destroyed the bridge and everything topside. Takato made Benny take the controls as he moved to the weapon crates, while Dutch used his stolen AK-47 to shoot at the mobsters on the deck, who were shooting back at them. Throwing the lid off of one crate, Taka lifted the Javelin launcher out and hefted the heavy tube onto his shoulder, switching the system on. He quickly locked onto one of the large rocket pods, and squeezed the trigger.

There was little recoil as the launcher spit out a long white missile, and the munition soared in the air for about 20 feet before its thruster ignited, a large plume of red and orange fire exploding from its rocket as it streaked towards the rocket pod, hitting it shortly before the ship's anti-missile Phalanx gatling guns could shoot it down. The rocket pod exploded mightily, each of the 20 huge munitions inside triggered by the large Javelin's explosion. It tore away at the immediate vicinty, removing a nice large chunk of the ship's bridge and defense. Takato tossed the launcher into the water and its crate as well, before opening up another one. He took aim at another cruiser and fired, aiming for its rockets as well with the night vision screen. Another large explosion rocked the next ship as the Miyuki speed around the harbor, firing upon all of the Triad ships with the 120mm canon that was smack in the middle of the deck, the 80mm canon at the bow, and the automatic RPG launchers on the sides. The small attack force was devastating the Triad, who were overwhelmed with surprise. Several RPG rockets were shot out of the sky by Phalanix's, but the sheer number of them (4 at a time) made sure that at least one would hit its target.

Once Takato had used up 4 launchers, the RIB was considerably light now, and they were jetting away quickly. He called Saito and told them to start retreating. The large yacht started to pull back in a zigzag, making sure to at least keep one side firing at the smoking cruisers as it pulled away, and the RIB flitted up behind it. They escaped Hong Kong port easily, and weren't even pursued so far. Taka took the controls from Benny and guided the boat up to the Miyuki's rear, which was putting up some heavy waves from the powerful engines. Eda was at the garage, and she fired out the attachment rope, which sailed through the air before Dutch caught it in his strong hands.

"Hey, clip the hook onto the nose of the boat!" Takato yelled, and Dutch did so. There was a jerk as Eda turned on the winch, and the small inflatable boat was slowly pulled into the garage of the yacht, making everyone on it sigh in relief. They were safe.

"She looks like shit," Eda remarked upon seeing Revy's battered and broken body. "I'll get the medical kit, put her down in the sick bay!"

While Eda treated Revy's wounds, Dutch and Benny went to help Saito up at the bridge to navigate out of the now-dangerous Hong Kong waters. Takato emptied the boat of the remaining 2 launcher crates, and decided to carry one up to the bridge with him. He met with the other men as they Miyuki rocketed through the sea at 65 knots, kicking up an impressive spray of water behind it.

"Well, that was epic," he smirked, using the yacht's rearward camera to zoom in on the smouldering wrecks of ships. He turned away from the LCD monitor.

"Any pursuit craft?" he asked his brother. Saito shook his head.

"No water-craft, but radar's picking up something else," he said, his eyes tense. "It's moving too fast to be a boat, so I'll have to think it's a helicopter."

"Maybe a news chopper?" Takato asked hopefully.

Saito shook his head again. "Not at this speed," he said. He glanced at the large launcher in Takato's hands. "Best put the to good use," he warned.

"Got it," Takato said, moving to the door. He turned back. "Dutch, there's another launcher in the garage, do you know how to use one?" he asked.

"Of course, it's not that different than what I used in Nam," Dutch said, before following Taka out and heading below deck. Takato stood on the bow of the yacht, surrounded by large canons. He pulled the Javelin launcher onto his shoulder and scanned the skies for anything moving. A faint light, a tiny one was approaching and he grinned wryly. _They're smart, turning their lights off,_ he thought as what looked to be a Russian-made Mi-24 Hind B appear in the night skies, _but the indicator light is always on no matter what_.

He knew the gunship couldn't target the yacht at far ranges, since the radar-guided missiles it used wouldn't be able to lock onto the Miyuki. It would have to come within a distance of at least 400 feet to engage with its rockets and 25mm gatling gun. Since the Javelin could only lock onto surface, or slow-moving vehicles, he would have to set it to direct-fire, which would fire the missile unguided like an RPG. Although, if the gunship came at them head-on, then he could easily lock on and fire, and the missile would most likely hit the Hind as it tried to dodge slowly to the side. The Hind was a large gunship, which would be its downfall. Since it was configured to also carry around 10 passengers, its large wide frame prevented it from dodging side-to-side easily.

Just as he thought, the Hind was coming up on their starboard side head-on. Dutch came to stand beside him.

"Hey Dutch, want to do something cool?" Takato asked as the gunship grew closer, at least 500 feet away.

"Sure," Dutch said, hoisting the tube onto his shoulder. "Shoot."

"I'll lock onto its slightly to the left, you slightly to the right?" Takato asked, using the pistolgrip controls to zoom into the chopper's canopy. "Fire at the same time?"

Dutch grinned. "Sounds like a plan," he answered, training his launcher as well. They both aimed for a moment. "You ready?"

"On three," Takato said. "1... 2... THREE!"

Two missiles were ejected into the sky, and began to streak towards the Hind-B. The gunship pilot panicked, and fired some flares, but the radar-guided missiles weren't interested in the heat-emitting decoys and continued onwards. He tried to bank left, but that only succeeded in Takato's missile missing, while Dutch's changed course to meet the chopper and hit it dead-on the cockpit. It exploded in a massive fireball, and plummeted into the unforgiving waters. Dutch gave an approving nod as he set the tube on the deck, standing beside Takato.

"You're right, that was cool," he commented. "Would you believe that's the second Hind-B I've shot down in my life?"

Takato looked surprised. "Really?" he asked.

Dutch nodded. "Ask Rock about it sometime, he'll tell you about his insane plan that led to me shooting the chopper down with one of the Lagoon's torpedos," he smiled. His smile turned into a frown. "Damn, my boat's gone."

Takato slapped the older man on the shoulders. "Don't worry about it old man," he said cheerfully as they looked out to the sea. "I'm sure you'll find something new."

-----

Revy was immediately taken to the hospital when they arrived home, with a frantic Rock and his daughter behind the ambulance. Balalaika had expressed with higly veiled threats her thoughts to the doctors should they be unable to fix the girl. Dutch and Benny were taken to the hospital as well to get treatment for their minor wounds, and Rock was taking Jane with him as well.

Takato and Saito called up Rico to get help with unloading the canon and other weapons and ammo they borrowed, and it took the group of 4 (Taka, Saito, Rico and Eda) to finally dismantle and pack up the massive artillery gun, and all the shells for it. Rico gave them a cheerful wave as he drove the semi away, confident in knowing that Sister Yolanda would be happy that her half million dollar canon was fine. They all took a cleansing shower and decided to head over to the Yellow Flag for a well-needed and deserved drink. Many drinks.

"Job well done you guys," Balalaika congratulated, patting each brother on the head as she sat down on one of the stools. "Bao, can I have a shot of Rodnik please."

They all nursed their drinks for a bit as they sat in comfortable silence. Literally, it was dead silent since everyone else had vacated the premesis when Balalaika walked in. She sighed.

"Revy will be fine in a month or two," she announced, gesturing to Bao to get her another shot. "She might not like it, but she can't do jobs anyways, what with their PT boat destroyed."

"Is there anything we can do about that?" Saito asked. "You know Black Lagoon was Dutch's pride and joy."

Balalaika smirked. "I think I can help him out," she answered mysteriously.

-----

_4 months later..._

"It's a submarine," Dutch stated stupidly, staring at the wicked craft before him.

"It's... a submarine," Benny echoed with wide eyes.

"Cool! We get a submarine!" Revy cheered, jumping up and down excitedly as she raced over to the Black Lagoon dock where a sleek, beautiful submarine was moored. It looked somewhat like half a sub and half a ship. The top half had the usual round shape of a submarine, and of course the sail and foreplanes were visible. However, the lower half looked that of a regular ship, making it's appearance much like a German U-boat of WWII (look up U 995 for an example of what it would look similar too). However, what really set it off from normal submarines were the angled wings that protruded from the middle of the craft, pointing out downwards from each side diagonally. Perhaps these were used to help steer the sub.

Balalaika walked up beside Dutch. "The folks back home owed me a favor," she explained as they made their way down. "She's brand-new, do you like it?"

Dutch shook his head. "Balalaika, how can we ever pay you back for this?" he asked incredulously.

She laughed at him. "Please, if you really want to make a list I probably owe you more than you owe me," she chided. "Besides, it was cheap. And, I can't have my delivery boy sailing a tugboat, can I?"

"Most tugboats are very powerful," Dutch replied. Balalaika rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean."

"... Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They stopped in front of the short submarine (sub-wise, it was shorter than most) and Balalaika smiled fondly at the German-made export submarine. It was a typical black in color, and very elegant-looking.

"It's a German-design ultra-compact," she explained. "40 feet long, so you might have to get used to its size. She can dive as deep as 1,300 feet safely and has a very good range."

"How far?" Dutch asked.

"12,000 miles on the surface, 420 nautical miles submerged," she said. "It's just as fast as your PT boat, doing 45 knots submerged but you can go underwater and travel over 60, so it's a fair trade off. It uses a special engine system that uses diesel-electric engines and an air fuel-cell system that propels the sub. It can run without diesel fuel on the air system, but only at a slow 5 knots. But, you can get over 1,200 nautical miles on it. It's supposed to be the quietest submarine in the world actually, if ever released. This is a prototype."

"Any weapons?" Dutch asked. She nodded.

"8 torpedes or 4 sub harpoons," she answered. At Dutch's raised eyebrow, she said, "Sub harpoons are anti-ship or plane missiles."

"Nice. No more launching torpedos in mid-air."

Balalaika laughed. "It's also got a full suite of top of the line computer systems, sensors and anti-detection systems. She can stay underwater for a max of 3 weeks without going up for air, and if the air conditioning isn't damaged," she went on. "Technically, you need around 10 people to crew it, but if you use the onboard computer systems, you and Benny should be more than enough."

They toured the interior of the submarine, which was very high-tech in appearances. There were very nice cabin rooms, and the bridge was very cool with tons of computers and holographic glass panels. Dutch had dug out the very thick manuals, and he and Benny headed back to the office to thoroughly read them over, but not without profusely thanking Balalaika again.

"Think nothing of it," she waved off. "But do try to get it running soon, I'd like some deliveries as soon as possible."

"Of course, we'll get on it!" Benny said, waving her off as he thumbed through the computer manuals. "Man, these computers totally kick the ass of what I used to have! Even the computer that runs the sub's lights can run any of the new next-gen games easily! This rocks!"

Jane (who was now 2 months pregnant) rolled her eyes and slapped him upside the head. "Just don't get blown up in this one!" she warned, shaking her finger at her husband. He grinned sheepishly.

-----

"So the Black Lagoon 2 is a submersible," Saito said with a raised eyebrow as he and Takato watched Dutch and the others crawl all over their new tuna can. "That'll make jobs a lot easier, they can hide underwater and surface to deliver the cargo."

Takato nodded. "And most sea thugs don't have anti-submarine weapons like torpedos or depth charges," he added. "But damn, that's like at least, a 2 billion dollar submarine!"

Saito laughed. "What, you think _obasan_ can't afford it?" he asked. He shook his head. "She's sly, even to her friends. She knows Dutch won't turn any job from her down anymore, not with such generosity."

Takato laughed too. "Oh, so she's acting like you did with the strip club?" he asked. He shook his head in amusement. "That woman."

"Revy might be dissapointed that she can't tan on the deck anymore, not without sliding off," Sait said with some humor in his voice.

And thus ends saga of the Black Lagoon, and now enters the age of the Black Lagoon 2

_Fin_

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* * *

_

And so ends Saga 1 of my Black Lagoon series. It ended nicely, close to what I originally wanted it to be, so I have no regrets about it. Writing short stories like this is what I'm aiming for in the near future, and I'm working on the first chapter to the sequel right now. Enjoy.


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